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Albert W. Gendebien '34, professor emeritus of history, College archivist emeritus, and author of The Biography of a College: A History of Lafayette College 1927-78, died March 8 at his home in Easton, Pa. He was 88.
A memorial service was held March 16 in Colton Chapel.
He is survived by his wife, Martha (Murphy) Watson Gendebien, to whom he was married this year; a sister, Edith Reeves of Phoenix, Ariz.; a stepson, A. Lowell Watson II of Boothbay Harbor, Maine; a stepdaughter, Wendy Watson of Granby, Mass., and nieces and nephews.
His first wife, Frieda A. Funk, died in 1986.
Gendebien had been a member of the Lafayette community since entering the College as a student in 1930. He received the College's highest honor, the Lafayette Medal for Distinguished Service, in 1997.
Born March 15, 1913, in Philadelphia, he attended Central High School in that city before attending East Greenville High School for his senior year. Gendebien received his bachelor's degree in English with a minor in German from Lafayette. In 1935, he also earned a master's degree from Lafayette, specializing in Pennsylvania colonial history.
Following study in Rome in the late 1930s, he joined the Salary and Wage Branch of the Civil Personnel Division of the U.S. Secretary of War's office in 1939. He served in the Army Air Corps from 1943-46, attaining the rank of captain, and then returned to the Civil Personnel Division in 1946, serving first as deputy chief, then chief, of the Salary and Wage Branch.
He began teaching at Lafayette in 1948 and became full professor in 1962. He completed his Ph.D. in history at American University in 1952.
Gendebien served as acting chairman of the International Affairs program, head of the history department, and chair of the Committee on Co-Education at Lafayette. He was chosen as a Jones Faculty Lecturer and received the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching and Contributions to the Campus Community. He was a member of Phi Alpha Theta, the national honorary society for men and women studying history.
When Gendebien retired from teaching in 1978, he began collecting and cataloguing Lafayette records. During his ten years as archivist, he also authored the third volume of the college's history, The Biography of a College: A History of Lafayette College 1927-78. Published by the College in 1986, it carries on the chronicle of Lafayette begun in David Bishop Skillman's two volumes on the College's first century, published in 1932.
To acknowledge his founding of the college archives, the area of Skillman Library that houses the archives is named the Albert W. Gendebien Suite.
Gendebien remained active in the Lafayette Alumni Association, holding positions on the Alumni Council, executive committee, and continuing education committee. He also was a correspondent for the Class of 1934. He was faculty adviser and alumni president of Theta Chi fraternity, and in 1992 received the Daniel E. Golden '34 Faculty Service Award.
Gendebien lectured regularly to groups of alumni and others. He spoke on the history of the Lafayette presidency at two inaugurations, on the influence of alumni in the College's history, and on the relationship between Easton and Lafayette through the centuries. He conducted a two-year study of religion and Lafayette and gave a talk on “Educating Christian Gentlemen: The 19th-Century Mission of Lafayette College” in the 2001 College Archives Lecture Series, which will be published by Friends of Skillman Library later this year. Gendebien also taught a course in Interdisciplinary Studies for Lafayette seniors in 1989 and 1991-93.
His professional affiliations included membership in the American Historical Association, the Pennsylvania Historical Association, and the American Association of University Professors.
Gendebien was a member of College Hill Presbyterian Church, Easton. His service to the community included being interior restoration chairperson of the 1753 Bachmann Publick House Restoration Project at Second and Northampton streets, Easton.
He had served on the boards of several organizations, including Easton Area Volunteers Association, Family Counseling Service of Northampton County, Project of Easton, and Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society. He was chair of the board of the Hugh Moore Historical Park and Museum in Northampton County.
He was a commissioner on the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.
Memorial donations may be made to the Albert and Frieda Gendebien Fund at Lafayette College.
Albert Gendebien '34