Henry Grosshans came to Washington State College in 1952, engaging in an active academic and intellectual life for three decades, after which he retired to Shoreline, Washington. Grosshans died last October, at the age of 89.
He was for many of those years editor of the University Press, raising its prestige and profile not only through the titles published, but through the journals he attracted to the press.
Before coming to WSC, Grosshans was a Rhodes Scholar, studying for two years at Oxford University between brief stints on the faculty at Kansas State and Bowling Green University. During World War II, he participated in the D-Day Invasion and was commanding officer of a gunboat in the South Pacific.
Whatever his influence as a member of the Rhodes Scholar selection committee for Washington, he certainly added greatly to the intellectual climate at Washington State that sent six student scholars to Oxford between WWII and the late 1950s.
Grosshans was a member of the Honors College faculty and wrote a major text, The Search for Modern Europe. He also wrote Hitler and the Artists and German Dreams and German Dreamers as well as writing and recording radio shows on Russian literary figures.
His wife of over 60 years, Donna Ruth Grosshans, passed away in 2008. He is survived by son Geoffrey, daughter Annie, and their families.