Charles Hugh Helmetag

Charles Hugh Helmetag of Newtown Square, PA, formerly of Rosemont, passed away on September 1, 2025 at age 90. He is survived by his son Steven and his wife Katherine, his daughter Diana and her husband Steven K. Glanzmann, and his grandchildren Bernard and Peter Helmetag and Amanda and Anna Marie Glanzmann.

He was born in Camden, NJ April 7, 1935. In 1959, he married his high school sweetheart Ruth J. Crispin. They shared a beautiful marriage for sixty-three years until her death in 2023.

He received a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in German Language and Literature in 1957 and an M.A. from the University of Kentucky in German Literature in 1959. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in German Language and Literature in 1968. He also studied at the Georg August Universität in Göttingen, Germany on a Fulbright Grant.

Dr. Helmetag taught at Purdue University from 1960-62, and Villanova University from 1964-2011. He was the department chair of Modern Languages and Literatures at Villanova from 1973-1988 and acting chair from 2006-2007. He served on numerous university committees including the Faculty Affairs Committee and the University Senate. During his career he taught all levels of German language and literature from introductory German to graduate courses in 19th and 20th century literature. He published numerous articles in German literary journals including essays on Brecht, Frisch, Hasenclever, Heyse and Schnitzler. Dr. Helmetag presented papers at literature and film conferences throughout Europe and North America as well as in Australia and Japan. He chaired sessions at conferences in the U.S. and abroad and served as external evaluator in promotion cases for German professors at other colleges and universities. Each year he evaluated undergraduate and graduate students and Villanova faculty who were applying for Fulbright, Humboldt or German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) grants to study and do research in Germany.

He was deeply involved in many professional and academic organizations including the American Association of Teachers of German, the Modern Language Association and the Internationale Vereinigung für Germanistik. He served on the executive council of the Northeast Modern Language Association and also as a reviewer for Literature/Film Quarterly. He was a member of Wayne United Methodist Church, where he sang in the Chancel Choir. Methodists are known for their joyful singing. So it was that he came to play John Wesley in the church’s Christmas pageant about the hymns of Charles Wesley and sing in the ensemble of several community theatre productions.

Dr. Helmetag firmly believed that drama cannot be appreciated solely by reading what is on the printed page. For this reason, he auditioned for and performed in Villanova University productions of plays by Brecht, Dürrenmatt, Chekhov, Shakespeare, Sophocles and Feydeau. He was also active in community theatre and was an extra in “Our Town” starring Arthur Godfrey at Bucks County Playhouse and in Martin Scorsese’s film “The Age of Innocence.” Charles was a great lover of music, theatre, travel, the Jersey Shore, the White Horse Village Singers, his wife Ruth and their children, and his four beloved grandchildren, who gave him much joy.