KONOPKA, Gisela 1910-2003

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born February 11, 1910, in Berlin, Germany; died of pulmonary edema, December 9, 2003, in Minneapolis, MN. Educator, social worker, and author. Konopka was a noted authority on adolescent development who did groundbreaking research on troubled adolescent girls. Not long after completing a degree in education at the University of Hamburg in 1933, she joined the resistance movement against Adolf Hitler. In fear for her safety because of these political activities, she left Germany in 1941, continuing her education in the United States, where she earned a master's degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1943 and a doctorate in social work from Columbia University in 1955. During the 1940s, Konopka was a lecturer at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie-Mellon University. She joined the faculty at the University of Minnesota in 1947, where she would serve as a professor of social work until her 1978 retirement; in 1989 she returned to teaching as an adjunct professor. Konopka also directed the Center for Youth Development and Research from 1970 to 1977. As an author, she was well known for her pioneering 1966 study, The Adolescent Girl in Conflict; this was followed in 1976 by the related title Young Girls: A Portrait of Adolescence. She published about twenty books and pamphlets in all, and was a contributor to dozens of others. Among these works are Social Group Work: A Helping Process (1963; 3rd edition, 1982), Human Dignity: Our Youth and Ourselves (1986), and Courage and Love (1988). For her contributions to social work involving adolescents, Konopka was widely recognized as a leader in her field; the Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health at the University of Minnesota was named in her honor. Just before her death, she had also received news from a university in the Netherlands that was considering associating her name with another social work institute.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Chicago Tribune, December 23, 2003, section 1, p. 11.

New York Times, December 22, 2003, p. A29.

Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN), December 10, 2003, p. B1.

Washington Post, December 15, 2003, p. B5.