Robitschek, Walter

Dr. Walter Robitschek was born in Czechoslovakia at the turn of the 19^th century, when Czechoslovakia was still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  He was born into  a well-to-do family, his father being a toy manufacturer, and his mother came from a highly educated and erudite family.  At a very young age he already spoke German, Czech and French, and it was quickly apparent that he was a very intelligent young man.

Eventually Walter went to the University of Vienna and studied medicine to please his parents, although he truly wanted to study law and become a judge.   When he was still a young doctor, World War I started and he was sent to the front in the Balkans where he tended to the wounded and dying soldiers.  When the war ended in 1918, he returned to Vienna and worked, doing both research and general medical practice.  Many of his peers considered him a brilliant researcher.

Sadly, at the age of 36 Walter became paralyzed from the waist down and remained in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. When Hitler came to power, he was barely able to escape Austria along with his wife Pauline and daughter.  They arrived in the early 1940s in the Dominican Republic, and eventually settled in Sosύa. Due to his illness he was only able to teach at the school while his wife was the first dentist in Sosύa. After a few years she decided to leave him and Sosύa with their daughter.

In Sosύa, the children who had the great fortune to have him as a teacher still remember him as the most wonderful, fascinating, difficult and enthralling instructor.  His influence on the generation of students that had the pleasure of having him as a professor is immeasurable.  He made students think, debate, come up with their own answers, and was constantly trying to improve their minds.  He is remembered as the greatest teacher Sosύa’s students ever had.