Ernest Imhoff

❍ Field of current or former occupation: Journalism
❍ Year of graduation: 1959

Question: What is your current occupation and where do you live? Please briefly describe your duties and responsibilities. How long have you been at this position?

Ernest Imhoff: I graduated from Williams College with honors in 1959 after majoring in German literature. I am 78, live in Baltimore, grew up in Williamstown and was a newspaperman for 40 years, 36 of them in Baltimore. I began reporting in the 1950’s at the late, now departed North Adams Transcript. .
I have been “retired’ since 1999, that is working without pay as a volunteer ordinary seaman on a WWII Liberty ship in Baltimore, writing and doing other things.

Question: Did studying German language and culture at Williams College help you in your professional and personal development? If yes, then how were German Studies useful to you? What opportunities and challenges did the German major open up for you both specific to your current occupation and more generally?

Ernest Imhoff: My German studies did not directly help me in my chosen profession as a journalist except once in a while incidentally.

Question: Please share your advice or recommendation about the German department at Williams to a prospective student who is considering taking courses or majoring in our program.

Ernest Imhoff: I have been too far away from my college days to offer much specific advice to a prospective student today. Frankly, my situation is a bit unusual in regards to my major studies. My parents were German immigrants. They came over separately in 1928 and 1929 (before Hitler), met in New York City, married in the early thirties and became US citizens. I was born in New York. As a little boy I spoke German, but the war was on and my German slowly ended as I went through schooling. I knew I would be a newspaperman since I was about 7 or 8. I took German because I liked the literature (Heine, Goethe etc) but I knew when I started it would not be much practical use in the newsroom. It wasn’t. But I liked it.

One great blessing was I was a lifelong friend of Dr. Winthrop Root, the fine chairman of the German dept. who happened to live back to back near us at Main Street and Haley street. He was one reason I majored in German.

I was lucky as a kid to grow up in beautiful Williamstown. My family (including brother) moved there in 1941 because my father worked for the Gaevert film company which moved there from NYC.