Gretchen Mieszkowski Obituary

Gretchen Mieszkowski
06/13/1938 - 08/26/2023
Gretchen Mieszkowski, 85, of Seabrook, Texas passed away on August 26, 2023 from complications of a stroke. Gretchen was born on June 13, 1938 to Henry Homer and Marion Adelaide (née Greene) Buckelmueller in Plainfield, NJ, where she grew up with her older sister, Katrina.

Gretchen received her BA from Vassar College in English in 1960 and her PhD in English from Yale University in 1965. Gretchen was among the female graduate students who taught all-male classes of undergraduates at Yale College, before co-education. At Yale, she also met the economist Peter Mieszkowski, who would become her husband of 59 years.

Gretchen went on to teach at the University of Chicago and at Queen's University in Ontario before becoming a professor at the University of Houston-Clear Lake, where she worked from 1974 until her retirement in 2009. At UHCL, where Gretchen was one of the first senior faculty appointments, she advised over 100 Masters theses and projects and was honored for distinguished teaching, research, and service. In 1978, she won the Minnie Stevens Piper Award, which recognizes college and university instructors across the state.

Dozens of Gretchen's former students have gone on to work in K–12 and higher education in Texas. A founding faculty member of Women's Studies at UHCL, Gretchen served on the program's executive committee for over 30 years. Her scholarship was primarily focused on Chaucer's poetry, medieval literature, and gender studies. She was the author of numerous articles and two books, most recently Medieval Go-Betweens and Chaucer's Pandarus (2006).

Gretchen loved traveling and visiting museums. In her later years, she enjoyed watching opera videos while walking on her treadmill, gardening, bird-watching, and spending time with her grandchildren. She liked to joke that in a different life she might have been a zookeeper.

Gretchen is survived by Peter, who currently lives in League City, TX; her son Jan Mieszkowski and daughter-in-law Sarah Roff of Portland, OR; and her daughter Katharine Mieszkowski, son-in-law Jim Fisher, and grandchildren Iris and Petra Fisher of Kensington, CA.

Memorial donations may be made to the Gretchen Mieszkowski scholarship, which supports undergraduates in the UHCL College of Human Sciences and Humanities who are pursuing a degree or concentration in Literature. To make a donation, go to https://giving.uh.edu/uhcl and under Search Funds find Gretchen Mieszkowski Scholarship Endowment Fund. To give by check, make it payable to University of Houston-Clear Lake and note that the gift is for the Mieszkowski Scholarship. The check should be mailed to UH-Clear Lake Advancement Office, 2700 Bay Area Blvd, MC 318 Houston, TX 77058.