Fritz Keppler Collection

Collection

Identifier: FZK

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Contains 12 volumes (numbered I-XI, XIV) of a 4,000-page diary that Fritz Keppler created during his year in Innsbruck, Austria, through Notre Dame’s study abroad program. Keppler’s diary entries include observations and reflections on daily life; details about his courses at the University of Innsbruck; reflections on political events, arts, and culture in Europe; and descriptions of his many travels in Austria and surrounding countries. Collection also includes one folder with related ephemera contributed by Keppler’s study abroad classmate, Jim Gleason.

Dates

1966-08-10 - 1967-08-17

Creator

Keppler, Fritz (Frederick Louis), 1947- (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright for original material in this collection has been transferred to the University of Notre Dame du Lac. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.

Biographical / Historical

Fritz (Frederick Louis) Keppler was born on September 29, 1947, in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Lloyd A. Keppler (1910-1997) and Helen (Kohler) Keppler (1913-2012). He graduated from Holy Cross School in New Orleans in 1965 and enrolled at the University of Notre Dame in the same year. He lived in Breen Phillips Hall as a freshman before spending his sophomore year abroad through Notre Dame’s program in Innsbruck, Austria. He spent his final two years in St. Edward’s Hall, graduating cum laude in 1969 with a major in Modern Languages.

After his graduation from the University of Notre Dame, Keppler enrolled in graduate school at Georgetown University in 1969. From 1970 to 1972, he served in the US Army as a Vietnamese language specialist in military intelligence before earning a master’s degree in linguistics in 1974. In 1977, he took a job with the German Military Representative USA/Canada office at Washington Dulles Airport where he worked until his retirement in 2017. Keppler lived with Earl F. Mellor in Virginia from 1978 until his death in 2020. They were legally married in 2014.