Ralph Lindheim died on December 3, 2023, at the age of 85, after a long struggle with Parkinson’s disease. He will be remembered by family, friends, colleagues, and former students for his inimitable strength, warmth, and generous spirit.
Ralph was born January 14, 1938, in Leipzig. His early childhood was an odyssey to escape the clutches of Nazi Germany: His parents fled to France in 1939, only months before the onset of WWII. His mother, Hilde, was killed during a German bombing raid on Angers. As France fell, Ralph and his father, Werner, escaped to French North Africa, then to neutral Portugal – and, in August 1941, to the United States. Ralph was raised by a foster family in Malden, MA. He began his higher education at Dartmouth College (BA, Russian Civilization, 1959) and continued at the University of California, Berkeley (MA, Slavic Languages and Literatures, 1963), where he spent formative years studying with Kathryn Feuer, Gleb Struve, Frank Whitfield, and Nobel Laureate Czeslaw Milosz.
In 1959, at a party during his first year at Berkeley, he met his future wife, Nancy, whom he married in 1966. Shortly after the birth of their first daughter in 1967, Ralph joined the Slavic Department at the University of Toronto. Their second daughter was born in 1971.
Ralph’s entire academic career, spanning from 1967 to 2003, was spent at the University of Toronto, where he mainly taught 19th and 20th c. Russian fiction and drama. He was the author of numerous articles and book reviews and edited various critical collections. Ralph’s passion for Chekhov was evident in his tenure editing The Bulletin of the North American Chekhov Society from 2002 until considerably beyond his retirement. He published on such topics as the themes in Chekhov’s fiction, the significance of folly in The Cherry Orchard, and the state of Chekhov criticism. Both graduate and undergraduate students enjoyed the extra-curricular performances of Chekhov and other playwrights he staged for the department.
He was deeply engaged with, and supportive of, his colleagues. He shared a decades-long friendship and intellectual partnership -- as well as a tradition of daily lunches -- with George Luckyj, with whom he collaborated on the publication of Mykola Kulish’s Sonata Pathetique and co-edited Towards an Intellectual History of Ukraine. He also edited and contributed to George’s Festschrift, In Working Order. His devotion to his graduate students, who frequently relied on his exacting editorial eye and compassionate ear, was noteworthy, as was his generosity to peers and young scholars, whose work he admired and promoted. He served as co-chair of the department with Louis Iribarne from 1983-84, and as undergraduate secretary for ten years.
Ralph was a beloved husband, father, grandfather, and friend who engaged loved ones with warmth, an empathetic ear and dry, sometimes mischievous, wit. He was also a devoted nephew to his two aunts, the late Margot Gunzenhauser and Hilde Wolff. He pursued his passions with a scholar’s bent, immersing himself in opera, chamber music, jazz, baseball, cooking, gardening, aphorisms, and detective fiction. He delighted in travel to Europe, especially when Italian or French food and wine were involved. Fiercely competitive, but always humorous, Ralph relished the strategic aspect of any game, whether playing Othello, Mille Bornes or tennis.
His memory is cherished by his wife of 57 years, Nancy, his daughters Sara Lindheim of Santa Barbara and Rachel Lindheim of New York, his son-in-law Robert Morstein-Marx of Santa Barbara, and three grandchildren: Eric, Em and Isabel.
A memorial to celebrate Ralph’s life will be held on Sunday, June 23, at 3PM at St Michael’s College, room Father Madden Hall, in Carr Hall, 100 St Joseph Street, Toronto, Ontario.