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In Memoriam | Summer 2014

In Memoriam: Faculty & Friends

Notices sorted by graduation date

Robert P. Scharlemann of Charlottesville, Va., died July 10, 2013. Early in his career, Rev. Scharlemann served as pastoral assistant at the chapel of the University of Iowa in Iowa City and at First Lutheran Church in Ada, Okla. He taught briefly at both Valparaiso University and the University of Southern California before joining the department of religious studies as a professor at the University of Iowa in 1963. He arrived at U.Va. in 1981 as Commonwealth Professor of Religion, where, in addition to his teaching posts, he served as editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Religion. Rev. Scharlemann authored a number of books and essays on the nature of thinking theologically, among them The Being of God: Theology and Experience of Truth and Inscriptions and Reflections: Essays in Philosophical Theology. He was also influential in the emergence of the North American Paul Tillich Society. He was a kind and gentle man with a wonderful sense of humor who loved books, music, playing piano. Survivors include a brother, two sisters, and many nieces and nephews.