Sunday, Mar. 29, 1981/UPSTATE

Introducing.......Paul Neureiter

Paul Neureiter is retired, or so he says. He officially retired from the faculty at the State University College at Geneseo 15 years ago when he reached the age of 66. But retired may not be the right word. Neureiter merely paused and slowed down a bit.

This semester, at age 81, he's back at the college teaching two math classes. "I was a last-minute replacement," he explains. "Someone resigned in the middle of the year and mathematicians aren't easy to come by these days. Those computer people snatch them up. So they asked me if I could teach two sections of 'Introduction to Algebra.' It's not a very high form of mathematics, but I was happy to help them out and get back in the classroom. I've always enjoyed teaching and being around young people."

It's the third time since his retirement that Neureiter has filled in at Geneseo. And so, he's back where be began his career - in front of a classroom - 57 years ago in Vienna, Austria. He came to the United States in 1927 and to Geneseo in. 1939 where, through the years, he became something of a one-man university.

"I taught chemistry, a little physics, what we called physical sciences, a lot of different mathematics courses, Latin, scientific German, a few education courses, English literature during summer sessions, and, oh yes, philosophy. That was before we had a philosophy department and some students wanted to organize some philosophy classes. That's always been one of my interests. You see, I saw some terrible things during the war and the period after it in Europe and that makes you ask yourself some questions about what it all means."

The war he remembers was World War I. Neureiter was 17 when, near the end of the war, he was drafted into the Royal Austrian-Hungarian Army. "We had such resplendent uniforms, but didn't do very well in the field. I couldn't see much purpose in it. Why should I hate Italians, or Russians, or Englishmen? A lot of young people felt as if we were fighting for something that didn't mean anything to us. In fact, a. few years back, I wrote something for the local news­paper here about why so many young people then were

against the Vietnam War. I knew how they felt. I tried to put it in perspective."

The conversation swings from Vienna to Vietnam, back to the Vienna of the early 1900s and to the novels, set in upstate New York, of James Fenimore Cooper. "I know it may sound strange today, but to the youth of Europe at that time, Cooper's Leather­ Stocking Tales was 'must' reading. It made America seem like such a land of adventure. And we were stuck with the antiquated order of the old Austrian mon­archy. For progressive ideas, we looked to America.­

Then the war ended and we looked to the American president, Woodrow Wilson, as the champion of peace. He got all balled up in the old European intrigues, but to the Austrian youth, he was our ideal­ist hero."

Influenced in part by the novels of Cooper and the politics of Wilson, Neureiter immigrated to the U.S. "No one ever had to sell me on this country. I don't mean to boast, but I think I foresaw the future. The 20th century would be the American century." He taught at colleges in Illinois and Missouri, and ended up in Geneseo. His first question upon arriving: "How far is Cooperstown? I remembered those stories I had read as a child in Vienna."

Since his "retirement," Neureiter has worked as a curriculum consultant for local school districts and helped introduce a program for teaching chess to, gifted elementary school students in Dansville, Way­land and Genesco. "A wonderful game. It teaches you how to plan, how to concentrate and how to lose."

He says he finds it hard to understand those whose idea of retirement is "to move off to Florida to segre­gate yourself with other old people, sit around and play golf. If possible, you should be permitted to retire gradually. I can't do as much as I used to, but I still want to be in touch with other people, to know what problems there are, to be part of the real world. There are things I still can learn and things I still can contribute."

So when the college newspaper recently described Neureiter as "Geneseo's own Mr. Chips," he took mild offense. "Wasn't he kind of a pathetic figure?" he asked, recalling the character in James Hilton's novel. "A kind of hanger-on?"

- Bob Minzesheimer

In 2006 we found

Georgianna Terrell.