The Memorial Meeting for Klaus Wust was memorable. There was a good attendance, both in person and by memoranda, of people who had been involved with Klaus. Certainly, I learned a lot about his life and work that I had not known before. And, I learned a great deal about his family.
He is survived by his wife Monique; by two daughters, Barbara and Francoise; and by two grandchildren.
Most of his papers and books will be donated to the Shenandoah County Library in Edinburg, which will have a formidable German collection. (They already are the keepers of the Mid-Atlantic Germanic Society Library .) The family will retain a few of Klaus' oldest books. Donations to the Library In Memory Of Klaus Wust will be appreciated. (Shenandoah County Library, 514 Stoney Creek Blvd., Edinburg, VA 22824.)
Klaus' last work, one that is essentially completed, is " Present Voyage ", a book of the whole process of migration within Europe of German-speaking individuals, and their immigration to America. Francoise Joiris, his daughter, will see this through to completion.
The actual event was held at the Frontier Culture Museum in their German House, a reconstructed building from the Palatinate that Klaus was instrumental in procuring and moving to the Museum. (The building was especially interesting to me, as I compared a number of features of the building to the Hans Herr House, which was built, here in America, at about the same time as the Museum House.) Though the day was very busy at the Museum, as they were holding Oktoberfest, the Museum closed the House for about two hours for the Wust gathering.
A theme which many of the speakers developed was that Klaus had been a big help to them. Over and over, speaker after speaker recounted his willingness to help others.
A second theme was the scholarship of Klaus. He tried to get the complete story and he tried to get it right without injected his own views into the discussion. Always, he tried to use original materials, not what other historians had said.
His last public appearance was at the Germanna Reunion in the year 2002, where he was a speaker.
(13 Oct 03)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.