John Rodes; Professor at Occidental College

John Rodes, 77, longtime professor at Occidental College who played a key role in developing the History of Civilization program at the college. Born in Frankfurt, the son of a construction firm executive and an actress, Rodes fled Nazi persecution in Germany with his mother in 1938. Over the next two years, Rodes attended four high schools taught in three languages. Rodes and his mother finally left Europe in 1940, landing in Bogota, Colombia. After immigrating to the United States, Rodes earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from USC, as well as a second master’s and a doctorate from Harvard. He served in U.S. Army intelligence during the war and as a French liaison interpreter in post-war Berlin. Rodes joined the Occidental faculty in 1948. From 1953 to 1964 he headed the History of Civilization program, a series of mandatory courses for freshmen and sophomores. In his 43-year career at Occidental he also served as chair of the history department for nine years. Before his retirement in 1993, Rodes also taught popular courses on Nazi Germany and modern European diplomatic history. His major printed works include “Germany, A History,” “A Short History of the Western World” and “A Quest for Unity.” On Dec. 26 of cancer in Pasadena.