Frederick Sontag
57-year Pomona College professor

Arriving on the Pomona College campus in 1952, Frederick Earl Sontag believed his time with the institution would be brief.  After all, he was a deeply committed scholar and the students might pester him too much.

“He was very much a thinker and an intellectual worker, and he thought the job of professor would be a thinking position,” said his daughter, Anne Sontag Karch. “He just wasn’t sure about the personal interaction.”

Pester they did, and he was hooked. Fifty-seven years and thousands of deeply impacted students later, Dr. Sontag retired from Pomona College last month, lauded as the professor whose generosity of time, compassion, encouragement and mentorship was legendary. 

“Fred deeply believed that every student, however mischievous or troubled, had great worth and potential. His talent was to instill this sense of personal self-esteem in the many hundreds that he closely mentored,” said Stewart Smith, a Pomona College alumnus and immediate past chairman of the Pomona College board of trustees. “His often repeated phrase, ‘He is really a good kid,’ still rings in our ears, because Fred believed in the potential of every student he knew.”

“I remember Fred…taking the time to enjoy a beer with 18-22 year-olds who he saw the best in, even when they didn’t deserve it, even when no one else would,” wrote former student Kyle Ridgeway in a tribute. “Fred made us believe in ourselves, thereby giving us the greatest gift we could have ever hoped for.”

At the age of 84, Dr. Sontag, Pomona College’s longest-serving faculty member, died on June 14, 2009 at the Pilgrim Place Health Services Center.

Born in Long Beach on October 2, 1924, Dr. Sontag faced the challenge of growing up without his parents, having lost his mother at age 3 and his father at age 14.

“He missed the key figures in his life at precisely the time you need them, mom when he was little and dad when he was a teenager,” commented his son, Grant Sontag.

Boldly, he made his way in the world on his own, living in a room at a movie theater where he worked as an usher as he completed high school.

“Dad, what did you eat?” his son once questioned. In response, Dr. Sontag said, “Well, they had hot dogs.”

After service in the army and a tour of duty during World War II, Dr. Sontag used the GI Bill to earn a degree at Stanford University in 1949, followed by his master’s degree and doctorate at Yale University in 1951 and 1952, respectively. At Stanford, he was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society.

Joining the Pomona faculty in 1952 and holding the Robert C. Denison Professor of Philosophy position, Dr. Sontag inspired a love of philosophy in countless students: “An intro philosophy course with Fred made me ditch economics immediately,” wrote Kent Callaghan, class of ‘87, in a tribute.

An academic and an ordained minister, he plumbed the depths of subjects such as injustice, suffering and the problem of evil in his research, writing and teaching. On these subjects and numerous others, including existentialism, metaphysics and the philosopher and theologian Soren Kierkegaard, he wrote nearly 30 books and hundreds of essays and academic articles.

Reflecting on his longtime former teacher, friend and colleague, John Roth, emeritus philosophy professor at Claremont McKenna College, noted the fascinating juxtaposition of Dr. Sontag’s fervent delving into topics such as evil and suffering with his consistent optimistic and cheerful personality. 

“It was always so interesting that a person who could spend his life thinking about the dark side of human experience was as upbeat and positive as he always was,” Dr. Roth remarked. “Students liked this about Fred. They knew he was a very honest, deep thinker, but they appreciated his joy about life and affirmation of young people.”

Dr. Sontag enjoyed a long kinship with the rowdy, fun-loving Kappa Delta fraternity at Pomona, serving as its advisor for nearly a half-century and “taking energy” from the association, according to Dr. Roth.

“[He was] someone with whom you could have a beer or ask what Kierkegaard was really all about,” wrote former Kappa Delta member Tom Crowe, class of ‘65.

Over a beer or over an academic paper, upon which he would often write to the student author, “Come see me,” Dr. Sontag served those under his tutelage with unapologetic directness, always doing so with deeply sincere concern and compassion.

“He could get away with being so direct because you always knew he did it out of the utmost caring for your soul,” wrote class of ‘68 student George Lough, referring to a long-ago penetrating and life-altering conversation with Dr. Sontag. “It might be truthfully said that I owe my very life to Prof. Sontag,” he concluded.

“Fred’s story reaffirms the value of intimate, small colleges such as Pomona. Each student is unique, each comes here with vast potential but each requires heart-felt encouragement and nourishment from mentors in the faculty,” said Mr. Smith. “Fred understood this fully, and more than many he threw his time and energy into it without holding anything back.”

And it was always without judgment that Dr. Sontag offered his guidance and, at times, his forgiveness, which he gave the mentally disturbed student who stabbed him in the neck in 2000. Bearing no ill-will, Dr. Sontag, then in his late 70s, helped the student with legal matters after his arrest and, in his quintessential manner, freely offered the young man his gentle kindness.

“He had this amazing ability to forgive and not bear grudges or hold resentments. He could let go of things,” said his son.

Similarly, Dr. Sontag naturally overlooked the ostensible barriers constructed by war when he, as a staff sergeant in charge of prison detail during WWII, befriended a German prisoner of war who was being held at a Mississippi incarceration camp.

“This was a friendship that has lasted to this day,” said Dr. Sontag’s daughter, noting that her father visited this lifelong friend in Germany on numerous occasions.

Dr. Sontag was an enthusiastic and highly organized traveler, and even this passion of his revolved around Pomona College students. Keeping a voluminous correspondence with alumni over the years, he knew where his former students lived and visited them around the world whenever he had the chance. One particular way Dr. Sontag remained connected to his former students was officiating more than 100 weddings of alumni.

For his illustrious career at Pomona College, and more specifically for his “compassionate mentorship and counseling of students,” Dr. Sontag was awarded the Trustees’ Medal of Merit on May 17, 2009.

“No one at the college knows more about the lives of alumni—their pursuits, triumphs, and tragedies—than Fred,” said Mr. Smith in his presentation speech.

Another testament to Dr. Sontag’s venerable status among students was the 1994 alumni-initiated project to enhance the institution’s outdoor theater and dedicate it to Fred and Carol Sontag. Dr. Sontag and his wife celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary a few days before his death.

“They were an amazing team,” said their niece, Amy Furth.

Though Dr. Sontag’s daughter expressed that her father “really had no hobbies; his students were his hobby,” he loved classical and other types of music and spent over 50 summers picnicking and listening to concerts at the Hollywood Bowl, “originally in the nosebleed seats,” said his niece.

Dr. Sontag is survived by his wife, Carol Sontag; his daughter, Anne Sontag Karch; his son, Grant Sontag; and by his 3 grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. on Saturday, October 10, 2009 at Little Bridges (the Mabel Shaw Bridges Hall of Music) on the Pomona College campus.