Bernard Sternsher

Dr. Bernard Sternsher, 86, died on Saturday, July 16, 2011 in Perrysburg. His wife, Carol (Edwards), whom he married in Rochester, NY on August 26, 1961, survives. Dr. Sternsher was born on March 3, 1925 in Fall River, MA to Nathan and Eleanor (Bernard) Sternsher. Dr. Sternsher enrolled at the University of Alabama in 1942 and received a BA degree in 1949. His undergraduate education was interrupted by service from 1943 to 1946 in the U.S. Coast Guard, from which he was honorably discharged as a Sonarman Third Class, having received the American Theater, Asiatic, Philippine and Victory Ribbons. He earned a master’s degree in history in 1950 and a PH. D. in 1957 from Boston University. His graduate studies were interrupted by employment in the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Washington, DC, 1950-1952. Dr. Sternsher taught at the Rochester Institute of Technology, 1956-1961, Seton Hall University, 1961-1969, and Bowling Green State University, 1969-1992. He was a member of several academic honorary societies including Phi Beta Kappa, recipient in 1989 of the title University Professor (later changed to Distinguished University Professor), and winner in 1966 of the Phi Alpha Theta Book Prize. In 1996 he received the Distinguished Service Award of the Ohio Academy of History for his career-long contributions to the field of history. Dr. Sternsher was active in the Wood County Democratic Party beginning in 1970. One of his avocations, besides rooting for the Boston Red Sox, was reading about the Battle of Britain, which he supplemented in 1990 with a visit to London to attend the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of that historic clash. In recent years he researched and gathered memorabilia concerning the sinking in September 1944 off Cape Hatteras, in a hurricane, of his ship, the Coast Guard Cutter Jackson, and the ultimate fate of U-518, a U-boat which the Jackson and several other ships were seeking after it torpedoed but failed to sink a Liberty Ship. Dr. Sternsher was one of nineteen survivors out of the Jackson crew of forty-one (Her sister ship, the Bedloe, lost twenty-six of thirty-eight sailors). The Jackson's survivors clung to life rafts for fifty-eight hours before seaplanes spotted them, landed and radioed shore stations for aid. Documents at the Naval Research Center in Washington indicate that U-518 was sunk with all hands on April 22, 1945 by two Navy destroyer-escorts. From January 1945 until May 1946 Dr. Sternsher was stationed with a patrol flotilla in the Philippines on Manicani, an island in Leyte Gulf. His sons, Daniel (Judith Lowry), Clarksville, OH, and David, Phoenix, AZ, granddaughter, Miranda and his beloved dog, Daisy, also survive. He is preceded in death by his parents and brother, David. Friends and family will be received on Sunday, July 31, 2011 from 12:30 P.M. to 2:30 P.M. with a memorial service following the visitation at 2:30 P.M. at the Witzler-Shank Funeral Home, 222 E.S. Boundary Street, Perrysburg, OH (419-874-3133) with Sr. Pastor Thomas George and Pastor David Thompson. Dr. Gary Hess will be performing the eulogy. Burial will be private. Those planning an expression of sympathy are asked to consider Hospice of Northwest Ohio and the Children’s Ministry of Perrysburg Alliance Church.