Heimtraut F. Taylor
(1939-2017)

We mourn the passing of Heimy Taylor, who died at her home surrounded by family on March 21, 2017. We remember her modesty, dedicated and committed teaching, superior and caring guidance of countless young teachers, and her pioneering research into the development of computer software for foreign language education.

Born in Hamburg, Germany, Heimy married and emigrated to the United States, earning degrees in Utah and Pennsylvania. She wrote her dissertation at Washington University, St. Louis, “Die Bedeutung der Familie in der Novellistik und dem Leben Theodor Storms: Eine literatur-soziologische Studie“ with Professor Peter Uwe Hohendahl, after which she joined the faculty at Ohio State in the fall of 1973.

From 1973-1979, Heimy served as Associate Director of Language Instruction in the Department of German. During these years, she worked together with Werner Haas on three innovative and effective computer programs: Deutscher Computer Unterricht (1973; rev. 1974, 1975), Tutorial Computer (1974), and Deutscher Computer Unterricht for Individualized Instruction (1978). And in 1986, she completed a significant comprehensive computer-assisted German grammar program and tutorial (Tuco II).

When she was tenured in the fall of 1979, she was also promoted to Director of Undergraduate Language Instruction. Heimy mentored and guided hundreds of graduate students in their role as Graduate Teaching Associates and served on over 30 graduate examination committees. In her first 14 years of supervision, seven German GTA’s were awarded Ohio State’s Alumni Distinguished Graduate Student Teaching Award.

Her promotion to Full Professor in the fall of 1988 was fully deserved recognition for Heimy’s excellent teaching and service, her pedagogical texts, and the extraordinarily creative and effective cutting-edge research in and development of foreign language instruction tools.

In the spring of 1992, Professor Taylor was awarded the University’s Alumni Distinguished Teaching Award.

Heimy’s collegial mentorship and generosity of spirit will long be remembered by her colleagues in the Department and in the profession at large.  As a devoted member of the American Association of Teachers of German, she supported the teaching of German at all levels through her many workshops and conference presentations locally, statewide and nationally.  Her productive collaborations with colleagues resulted in two successful textbooks Deutsch - Immer Besser : A Four Skills Approach for Intermediate German (co-authored with Werner Haas and Elfe Vallaster Dona) and the popular self-teaching handbook,  German A Self-Teaching Guide (with Werner Haas).  In addition to her regular research, teaching and outreach work, Heimy was for many years—even after her retirement from Ohio State in June 1995—a beloved and popular member of the summer German-language teaching staff of the American Institute for Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Austria.  She touched many lives and will be sadly missed.