George Wilbon Bahlke, 76, admired teacher, died February 1, 2011, at Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown after a brief illness. Born in Chicago, IL on June 20, 1934, he was the son of the late Agnes Wilbon and William Herbert Bahlke. He was Professor of English Emeritus at Hamilton College. Bahlke moved to Clinton in 1969 and taught at Kirkland College until it merged with Hamilton in 1978. He was described by Hamilton College President Joan Hinde Stewart as "a beloved professor on College Hill for more than three decades." He was the inaugural recipient, in 1992, of Hamilton's Teaching Award, established by the Class of 1962, for extraordinary teaching. He previously taught at Middlebury College, Rutgers University, and Mary Washington College of the University of Virginia. He also held professorships at Aberdeen University (Scotland) and Bard's Early College in New York City, and had recently taught adult learners at the Mohawk Valley Institute for Learning in Retirement (MVILR) at SUNY-IT. He attended grade school in Chicago, where he began his lifelong passion for the pursuit of knowledge. He spent his summers in the Indiana Dunes. He received undergraduate degrees from both the University of Chicago and from Swarthmore College, where he met his first wife, Valerie Worth (dec. 1994). He continued his graduate studies at the University of Chicago, and received his Ph.D. from Yale University. He was the author of The Later Auden: From "New Year Letter" to About the House (Rutgers University Press) and editor of Critical Essays on W. H. Auden (G. K. Hall). He was an active member of the Modern Language Association, the Virginia Woolf Society, and the D.H. Lawrence Society of North America. Among his favorite authors were Woolf, Lawrence, W.H. Auden, E.M. Forster, T.S. Eliot, and James Joyce. In addition to his literary interests, Bahlke was a lover of opera and classical music, art, movies and fine food. He continued to study foreign languages until the end of his life, and was conversant in German, Italian and Russian, as well as a student of Latin. Mr. Bahlke is survived by his wife, Felicity Colby of Clinton; two daughters and two sons-in-law, Catherine and Robert Hornstein, Cambridge, MA, and Margaret and Daniel Diskin, West Chester, PA; a son and daughter-in-law, Conrad Bahlke and Roxane Orgill, Riverdale, NY; and six grandchildren: Victoria and Rebecca Hornstein, Emily and Teddy Diskin, and Charlotte and Nolan Bahlke. A sister, Charlotte Escoube, and a brother, William Herbert Bahlke Jr., died before him. A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 2 at St. James Episcopal Church, Clinton, NY, to be followed by a reception in the parish hall. Memorial donations may be considered for the George Bahlke Faculty Travel Prize of Hamilton College, which was established by his wife, family and friends on the occasion of his retirement. Arrangements are entrusted to the Heintz Funeral Home, 10 East Park Row, Clinton.