Ruth Kuschmierz, German professor, cultural advocate and generous donor to keep the program alive at Pitt–Greensburg, died June 17, 2025 — her 96th birthday.
“I always enjoyed talking with Dr. Ruth Kuschmierz,” recalled Jodi Kraisinger, director of University Relations and Institutional Advancement for the campus. “Her heart and soul were woven into everything she did, especially at Pitt–Greensburg, where she celebrated her German heritage and inspired generations of students. Her legacy lives on in the vibrant German culture she brought to life in her classrooms, and the scholarships she endowed to ensure future students could share in her passion for learning and cultural exchange."
Helga Mears, a German instructor who was recruited by Kuschmierz, remembered her as also instrumental in an exchange program for students of German in Augsburg, Germany.
“She was, as it often happens with very intelligent people, extremely modest and understanding,” Mears said, “She loved classical music, especially Bach, and she was also very religious, and I never heard her say a critical word about anybody. At the circle dinners in Greensburg” — held each fall to honor UPG employees — “she conversed with my son, whose mother tongue is English but who is pretty good with German, in German. It takes more patience to do that than to just talk in English — you have to repeat and explain.
“She also donated a beautiful painting of the Cathedral of Learning,” which she had purchased from one of her students. “It hangs in the library on the Greensburg campus.”
“What I remember most about Ruth was her pride in her language and culture,” said Lillian Beeson, emeritus faculty member in communications at Greensburg. “She was already at the Greensburg campus when I arrived in 1975. She was a good colleague through the years that we taught together.
“There were few buildings there since the campus was fairly new then. There was no formal dining room or hall then, but we had a snack bar in the Lynch Mansion. Ruth and her students from the German classes always celebrated Octoberfest. She would have the snack bar serving bratwurst and sauerkraut. The whole basement and first floor of Lynch Hall smelled like kraut that day. She would wear festive dresses and have performances to mark the festival.”
Ruth Lina Marie Kuschmierz was born on June 17, 1929 in Brandenburg, Germany. When the family home was bombed in 1945, they moved to Bavaria with relatives until emigrating to Pittsburgh in 1951. Kuschmierz worked part-time in her uncle’s bakery while attending Pitt, where she earned her undergraduate degree in 1953 and her PhD in 1962.
She taught at Chatham College and Duquesne University before joining the Pitt faculty as a professor of English and German on the Greensburg campus in 1964. Retiring from full-time teaching in the 1990s, she was still teaching through 2020, which included part-time work at the University.
She is survived by nieces Maria Matsuda (Sam Bateman) and Christine Matsuda (Paul Bast), nephew Seiichi Matsuda (Bonnie Bartel), and many grand- (and great-) nieces and nephews.
Memorial gifts are suggested to the Ruth L. M. Kuschmierz Endowed Fund in support of German Language, Literature and Culture at Pitt–Greensburg.
— Marty Levine