Brother Benedict (Gottfried Otto) Lang had been associated with our community since 1965. At one point he would live in one of the outbuildings on our property and would spend summers helping us out with various construction or handyman jobs.
Gottfried (Friedl) Otto Lang died peacefully, surrounded by family, on the morning of June 9, 2011 in the home of his daughter Tina, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Friedl, as he was affectionately known, was born March 24, 1919, the last of 6 children to Anton and Mathilda (Rutz) Lang, in Oberammergau, Germany.
Friedl trained as a young man to be a bush pilot. He left Germany in 1937 to fly in the Hudson Bay area of Canada for Roman Catholic missions.
He moved to the United States when Canada entered the war, graduated from Brown University with an engineering degree and then pursued advanced studies in cultural anthropology at the University of Chicago. There he met his soul mate and life partner, Martha Anstice Baldwin. They married on Jan. 26, 1947.
Friedl received his PhD from Cornell University.
Martha and Friedl proceeded to spend their 55 years of marriage together in shared labors of anthropological studies on Native American reservations in the U.S., among the Sukuma of central Tanzania; and the Asmat people of coastal New Guinea.
During these years they also raised eight children and supported countless graduate students, international students, friends and extended family with their boundless hospitality. He taught countless students the joys of cultural anthropology at Catholic University in Washington D. C. and at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Because of his passion and commitment to cultural anthropology Friedl was a wonderful mentor and role model to many people.
he entered as a Postulant on October 1, 2005. he became a Claustral Oblate on March 24th, 2007. He had eight children, 17 grandchildren and one great grandchild.
Gottfried (Friedl) Otto Lang died peacefully, surrounded by family, on the morning of June 9, 2011 in the home of his daughter Tina, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Friedl, as he was affectionately known, was born March 24, 1919, the last of 6 children to Anton and Mathilda (Rutz) Lang, in Oberammergau, Germany.
Friedl trained as a young man to be a bush pilot. He left Germany in 1937 to fly in the Hudson Bay area of Canada for Roman Catholic missions.
He moved to the United States when Canada entered the war, graduated from Brown University with an engineering degree and then pursued advanced studies in cultural anthropology at the University of Chicago. There he met his soul mate and life partner, Martha Anstice Baldwin. They married on Jan. 26, 1947.
Friedl received his PhD from Cornell University.
Martha and Friedl proceeded to spend their 55 years of marriage together in shared labors of anthropological studies on Native American reservations in the U.S., among the Sukuma of central Tanzania; and the Asmat people of coastal New Guinea.
During these years they also raised eight children and supported countless graduate students, international students, friends and extended family with their boundless hospitality. He taught countless students the joys of cultural anthropology at Catholic University in Washington D. C. and at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Because of his passion and commitment to cultural anthropology Friedl was a wonderful mentor and role model to many people.
he entered as a Postulant on October 1, 2005. he became a Claustral Oblate on March 24th, 2007. He had eight children, 17 grandchildren and one great grandchild.