Lester Lee EIDEMILLER

EIDEMILLER, Lester L. 93, of Dayton, died June 16 after a life of extraordinary intellectual and artistic achievement. He was a retired university professor and founder of an acting studio in Copenhagen. In his adult life he lost his vision due to a congenital condition, and after returning to Dayton in 1970 he touched the lives of hundreds of Dayton-area students who volunteered to read for him and in return learned profound lessons about American literature and critical thinking. Lester was preceded in death by his parents, Lester W. Eidemiller and Dorothy Eidemiller Taylor, and his stepfather Roy Taylor. Lester was class president of his 1937 Fairview High School class, where he wrote a column for the school newspaper called "The Dopester." He also freelanced for the Dayton Daily News under legendary sports editor Si Burick. Lester graduated from Northwestern University in 1941 and earned his doctorate in philosophy from Columbia University in 1945, studying under John Dewey, Lionel Trilling and Margaret Mead. After completing a graduate fellowship in philosophy at Brown University, Lester taught philosophy at Brooklyn College, Penn State University and the University of Nebraska. In 1953 he moved to Copenhagen, where he founded the American Drama School and taught courses on acting and improvisation. He introduced the Stanislavski method of acting to Denmark and produced the first Danish performances of plays by William Saroyan and Edward Albee. In 1970, his stepfather died and Lester returned to Dayton to provide devoted care to his mother until her death 13 years later. In the 1990s Lester founded a "Hot Topics" group for Oakwood High School students, designed to encourage critical thinking on a wide range of academic topics, earning praise from one student as "a Renaissance scholar in the sense that he is able to discuss an incredibly broad range of subjects." His passions for literature and for teaching young people are reflected in his generous bequests to The MUSE Machine and Wright Library in Oakwood. Special thanks to the staff of Brookdale of Oakwood for their loving care. Lester is survived by his cousins Carol Certain and Roberta Bennett and by special friends Hank Baust; Cathy Brunner; Debbie Burbage; Becky Khan; Marco Marmolejo; Beth McCarty; Mary Jo McCarty; and Frank Wright. Services will be held Tuesday, June 26, at TOBIAS FUNERAL HOME - Belmont Chapel, 648 Watervliet Avenue, Dayton, with visitation beginning at 10 a.m. and a memorial service at 12 p.m. Donations may be made to Hospice of Dayton , 324 Wilmington Ave., Dayton OH 45420. Published in Dayton Daily News on June 24, 2012

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