Marion Joan Faber
Marion Joan Faber, a long-time resident of Swarthmore, died at home on April 30, from complications of pancreatic cancer. A beloved German professor for many years at Swarthmore College, she was most widely known from her career as a translator, especially of several works by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, including “Beyond Good and Evil” and “Human, All Too Human.”
Marion grew up in Los Angeles, studied at Reed College and the University of California, Berkeley, and earned her Ph.D. in German studies at Harvard University. After teaching at the University of Massachusetts, the University of Toronto, and Indiana University, she came to Swarthmore College. In over 30 years at Swarthmore, she taught courses from German language to expressionist film; from Holocaust studies to Kafka, Mann, and Nietzsche.
A fluent speaker of German, French, and Italian, she was also an accomplished amateur classical pianist who studied piano at UCLA and the Vienna Conservatory. Her musical expertise was put to work in translations of several works about Mozart (for one of which, Wolfgang Hildesheimer’s “Mozart,” she was a National Book Award finalist in 1988). Also notable was the biography of the Austrian-born concert pianist Rudolf Serkin, co-authored with her long-time collaborator and fellow Swarthmore resident, Stephen Lehmann.
Marion relished teaching, yet also had a joyful retirement. Over the last ten years she travelled widely, visited far-flung friends, took courses in Japanese language and Renaissance art alongside 20-year-olds at Swarthmore College, and mastered all of Beethoven’s piano sonatas. She often told her family during her last days that she had lived a full and rich life, with happiness far beyond what she had ever expected.
She is survived by her husband of 44 years, Stephen Hannaford, her two daughters, Rachel and Dinah Hannaford, by sons-in-law Justin Lerer and Adam Rosenthal, and by three grandchildren: Zachary Lerer, Beatrice Lerer, and Charlotte Rosenthal.
In lieu of flowers, we ask that you contribute to the Chester Children's Chorus or to HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) Pennsylvania, two organizations that Marion supported and worked with.
