Tributes paid to long-serving former staff member
Anne Winterhalter, who died on 5 August, worked at Sussex from 1966 to 1987 as French secretary and subsequently as Year Abroad secretary.
Anne Winterhalter celebrates with EURO student Mark Beale at his graduation from Sussex in 1981. Photo courtesy of Mark Beale.
Ladislaus (Laci) Löb, Emeritus Professor of German, who knew her well, writes: “Anne Winterhalter came to Sussex in 1966 as secretary to the French Subject Group. After a while she was appointed secretary for the Year Abroad, which all the students in the School of European Studies were obliged to spend on the Continent.
“She had lived in the USA, Turkey and Sweden, and worked for the British Council, the Foreign Service and MI5. She was particularly proud of having served on the staff of RAF Marshall Sir Arthur Harris, better known as Bomber Harris – “Such a gentleman”, she used to say. By her ex-husband, a Swiss consular official, she had a daughter who teaches in France, and a son, a businessman in America.
“As Year Abroad Secretary Anne worked closely with me during my tenure as Year Abroad Convenor, i.e. academic director of the European School’s foreign programme. When she retired in 1987,taking with her a certain plastic parrot, several pot plants and 21 years of Sussex history, I described her in Falmer magazine as “unruffled by any crisis, stately, diplomatic, infinitely knowledgeable, always ready to help or haul into line, reassuring worried parents in the North Midlands, chasing up deserters in Italy, nursing nervous breakdowns in Russia, braving bureaucracy in France and Germany, giving foreign visitors a memorable taste of Britain, and generally ensuring that one of the School’s most important activities was carried on smoothly and humanely.
“The Year Abroad was indeed a pioneering enterprise, which acquired an international reputation not least thanks to Anne’s dedication, competence and personal style, which included fluent French with a remarkable accent. She could be snobbish and stubborn, but she was utterly reliable, well-organised and deeply committed to the hundreds of people, both students and staff, who depended on her in sometimes difficult circumstances.
“I have often wondered what Anne would have thought of Sussex today without Euro and the Year Abroad as we knew it.”
Margaret McGowan, Research Professor of French, writes: “For many years Anne was secretary to the French Group and, as such, was both efficient and unusually detached, for she mingled things French with anticipation of the evening meal she was about to cook for friends, often bringing into her office the game she was to experiment with that evening. Such culinary preoccupations did not deter her from managing our affairs well, and ensuring that all students in EURO found appropriate placements in France.”
Professor William Outhwaite, a member of Sussex faculty between 1971 and 2007, remembers Anne’s “enormous skill and grace” in administering the Year Abroad programme: “I first met her as a graduate student attracted by her doctoral exchange programme with Grenoble, where I spent a happy autumn. She looked after me and generations of Sussex year abroad students in what was a transformative experience for all.
“My fondest memory of Anne is when we called on a professor in one of the Paris universities to arrange an exchange programme. As we knocked on the door and her previous visitor left, she said breathlessly to Anne that she was very sorry but there was absolutely nothing she could do for her son. Anne and I of course thought this was hilarious, but our host was so confuse that the misunderstanding cast a shadow over the rest of our meeting.
“Anne’s many other contacts with academic and administrative staff across Europe and in the French overseas territories went more smoothly. She knew how to deal with bureaucrats. She signed official letters ‘Pour le Président de l’Université’, knowing that the phrase was meaningless in the UK system but that it would smooth various paths.”
Many former students remember ‘Auntie Anne’ with affection. “Anne was very professional, always great fun and gave so many Sussex generations a year which will have become in most cases, intrinsic to their later life” (Mark Beale). “Dear Anne, I was so grateful to her for securing my Year Abroad” (Stephen Parsons) . “Thank you Anne for ... the best year of my life” (Alison Harris). “Quite a character – formidable but fun” (Roger Walkinton, who incidentally taught her to drive after she retired although, living in Lewes, she refused to bring her car to Brighton, a place she regarded as both dangerous and vulgar).