Andrejs Straumanis Obituary

My deepest sympathy to Frau Staumanis and the family. Frau Straumanis was my German teacher at Saginaw High 1962-1964, and Herr Straumanis was my professor at Delta for two semesters at Delta 1964-65. Both were excellent teachers. Remember Christmas caroling, and still can recite most of Erlkönig. Thank you for such good memories.

Sorry for your loss Frau Straumanis. I wish I had known Herr Straumanis. He must have been a wonderful man to have been married to you, my favorite teacher at Saginaw High.

Family of Andrejs: We are deeply sorry for your loss. He was a wonderful neighbor, and we know, an incredible educator in our community. We are thankful for his lasting impact and thinking of you all.

I very much enjoyed Andrejs as my Russian and German professor at Delta College, and I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to the Soviet Union in 1990 when he led the Delta study trip there. I loved his kindness and his dry sense of humor, very much like mine. I am very glad to have known him.

I worked with Andrejs at Delta College for over 25 years. When I interviewed for the job of teaching Spanish in May of 1968 I met him for the first time and I understand now that teaching faculty have major input into who is being hired. I enjoyed being able to work with a "real" European as he brought to the table much of the culture and heritage of central Europe. He was also well read and not only in world affairs but in educational matters as well. He was always participating in our teaching faculty meetings as well as in the Senate of Delta College and his comments were always well thought out and expressed clearly. Later he became my boss for 6 years as he was the chairman of the Humanities Division. But while teaching, I always heard the highest praise for him as an instructor. He locked on to each student as does a radar guided missile and would not let go until that person had learned Russian or German. He won the Bergstein award for teaching excellence, and it was well deserved. When I had to go to Estonia for People to People I visited him again to find out what was important to see in Riga and thus was able to profitably visit the neighboring country. In the last year I replaced both knees and in the process had rehab, then visiting nurses and visiting therapists. One of the therapists said it was violating their code of ethics but she wondered if I had known her "next" patient that day. She was driving to Midland to work with a Mr. Straumanis and knew that he had worked at Delta College as I had. Of course even in one given year there were more than 400 people working at Delta, but I told her that I had worked alongside Andrejs for 25 years to say hello and good luck from me. Andrejs' passing comes as a shock.