REMEMBERING DR. PETER TAPKE
by P. J. Wingate ’33

The field of scholarship and philosophy was sharply diminished on June 11, 1999, when Dr. Peter F. Tapke died after serving Washington College for 35 years as professor of philosophy.

L. Mencken, who had been called “The Baltimore Philosopher,” declined that honor on the grounds that philosophers were a gloomy group,and said: “If you want to find out how a philosopher feels when engaged in the practice of his profession, go to the nearest zoo and watch a chimpanzee at the weary and hopeless job of chasing fleas. Both suffer damnably and neither can win.”

Mencken never met Peter Tapke. This great scholar and deep thinker also had a keen sense of humor and sometimes passed on to his students Mark Twain’s famous advice: “Always do right. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” Dr. Tapke made a habit of astonishing those who thought that philosophy was a dull subject.

Peter F. Tapke graduated from Haverford College and later earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard University. He also studied and did research at Oxford in England and at the University of Louvain in Belgium. He was widely known around the world for his scholarship and deep understanding of philosophy, but the Washington College community knew him also for his sense of humor and his eagerness to give credit to others.

He headed the faculty group which insisted that the then-new fine arts building be named in honor of Dr. Daniel Z. Gibson, longtime President of Washington College. He also urged that the theater in William Smith Hall be named for Professor Norman James.


Dr. Tapke had a remarkable ability to tie the past, present and future together—something he demonstrated when he was chairman of the faculty committee which planned, in 1982, the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the founding of Washington College. He brought to Chestertown a remarkable collection of scholars from around the world—scientists, writers, artists and philosophers—but he was not awed by any one or all of them. Privately he told his co-chairman that his biggest disappointment was failure to be able to display George

Washington’s false teeth. “These teeth,” he said, “would have interested the audience more than the two Nobel Prize winners and the officials of the American Chemical Society and the American Philosophical Society combined.” He said it was too bad that the Dean of the University of Maryland’s College of Dentistry canceled his request for a loan of Washington’s teeth after somebody stole one set a couple of months earlier.

Another example of Dr. Tapke’s ability to tie the past and future is the silver chain, showing all past presidents of the College, that all Presidents of the College now wear on ceremonial occasions. Dr. Tapke conceived and designed it for the inauguration in 1971 of the 21st President of the College, Dr. Charles J. Merdinger.

In typical Tapke fashion, he never publicized any of the above things but was content to let his actions speak for themselves.
In academic circles, hurricanes hardly ever happen, but for nearly half a century Peter Tapke has caused the warm winds of sound philosophy to blow around Haverford, Harvard and Hodson Hall so steadily that they have, in effect, become trade winds which may last for a millennium. w


P. J. Wingate ’33, a former College trustee, was co-chairman with Peter Tapke on the College’s Bicentennial Committee. He is a frequent contributor to the Washington College Magazine.

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PHOTOS:

#1 - top: Professor Peter F. Tapke

#2 - group shot: Tapke is remembered for his direction of the William James Forum (top right), a student organization he established in 1963 to perpetuate philosopher William James' interest in the value of ideas

#3 - classroom photo: Professor Tapke in the classroom.

#4 - bottom right: Professor Tapke will also be remembered for his efforts in the development of the College's rowing program. In the early 1970s photograph at right, Tapke (far right) prepares for a rowing outing with other faculty and students.