PSU Magazine Spring 1999

'The life ofFrank Munk was celebrated by family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues in a service earlier this year at Reed College. Dr. Munk, who died January 16 at the age of 97, retired from Reed College in 1965 and went on to teach political science at PSU for another 18 years. After his second retirement, he and his wife, Nadezda, became members of the PSU Centennial Society. At his memorial, distinguished speakers included Ladis Kristof, a Reed graduate who became a PSU professor, and Maria Wulff '71, deputy director of the World Affairs Council which Dr. Munk help found in 1950. These individuals were perfectly book-ended by the opening and closing remarks of Dr. Munk's children, Michael and Suzanne. Dr. Munk was remembered by his friends and · admirers as a pessimist. Considering that he and his young family were forced to flee Czechoslovakia at the onslaught of Hitler, it's hard to find fault with his inclination. Perhaps Dr. Munk's pessimism was confirmed by the rise of Stalin and a new form of totalitari– anism which he moni– tored daily in the European press and hourly on short wave radio. (Dr. Munk knew eight languages.) Still, through his years of outstanding university teaching, his regular conversations on and off campus on the state of the world, and his establishment of the Frank and Nadezda Munk Endowed Scholarship for a PSU student of international politics, Dr. Munk surely showed an undying conviction that inquiry and learning were the proper responses to our turbulent world, no matter how pessimistic we might feel. A close friend, a fellow native Czech, mentioned an ongoing dialogue he'd had with Dr. Munk. It was the late professor's contention that people are like light bulbs: once the filament was broken, our light goes out. Movingly, this friend suggested that Frank would go on living, as long as he, his friend, lived and remembered him. However, for those attending the service, it became evident in retrospect that the light, especially from a bulb as bright as Frank Munk's, once emitted, sails through infinite space, perhaps striking us and reflecting in unexpected directions, but nevertheless shining indefinitely. The students and faculty of Portland State University are honored to carry on this light through the Frank and Nadezda Munk Scholarship in Political Science. To make a gift to the Frank and Nadezda Munk Endowed Scholarship or find out about membership in the Centennial Society, please call 725-8307 or send your gift to Portland State University-DEV. PO Box 751, Portland, OR 97207-0751. Please make your gift to the PSU Foundation-Munk Scholarship. PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY OFFICE OF PLANNED AND MAJOR GIFTS •:• 503-725-8307