Retired provost spent 35 years at UT
Gerhard Fonken scavenged apples as a youngster to help his family survive the Great Depression and went on to become executive vice president and provost of the University of Texas. Along the way, he saw the airship Hindenburg burn, served in the U.S. Army in Europe in the aftermath of World War II and in the Korean conflict, and earned a Ph.D. in chemistry.
Fonken, who retired from UT in 1994, died April 13 at a nursing home in Austin at the age of 88. The cause was bladder cancer, according to his family.
He earned his doctorate in chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1957 and conducted research for Procter & Gamble and the Stanford Research Institute before a one-year teaching stint at UT led to a 35-year career as a faculty member and administrator on the Forty Acres.
Peter Flawn, who became UT president in 1979, was so impressed by Fonken’s acumen as academic vice president that he asked him to take on at the same time the duties and title of research vice president, which Fonken did.
“He was absolutely first-class at the job,” Flawn said. “I think I would not have had as good a time as president if he had not been my vice president.”
In 1985, Fonken and William Cunningham, UT’s dean of business, were finalists for president. The UT System Board of Regents chose Cunningham.
“Jess Hay, chairman of the board, recommended that I think seriously about asking Gerry Fonken to be my provost,” Cunningham said. That proved to be good advice. “He did a fantas-