High honour for Marron C. Fort

The Lower Saxony Order of Merit is the highest honour awarded by the state of Lower Saxony. Dr Marron C. Fort, a researcher at the university, received the award today for his services to Low German and Sater Frisian.

The Cross of Merit on Ribbon of the Order of Merit of Lower Saxony - as it is known in full - was presented to Fort at a ceremony at the university by Science Minister Prof Dr Johanna Wanka. Born in the USA, Fort was head of the "Low German and Sater Frisian" centre at the University of Oldenburg.

"Dr Marron Fort has dedicated more than 20 years of highly qualified research work to Low German and Sater Frisian at the university. In doing so, he laid the foundation for today's academic work, which is being continued by Prof. Dr Jörg Peters," explained University President Prof. Dr Babette Simon on the occasion of the award. The University of Oldenburg owes Fort a great debt of gratitude.

Fort, born in Boston in 1938 and a German citizen since 1988, was Academic Senior Councillor at the University of Oldenburg from 1986 to 2003. The German scholar dedicated himself to the scientific research and documentation of Sater Frisian and the Low German dialects. He became known for the publication of a Sater Frisian dictionary (1980), two volumes of folk tales in Sater Frisian (1985 and 1990) and the translation of the New Testament and the Psalms into Sater Frisian (2000).

Fort grew up in New Hampshire (USA) and studied German, English, Dutch, Scandinavian studies and mathematics in Princeton (USA), Philadelphia (USA), at the University of Freiburg and in Ghent (Belgium). A study visit took him to Germany for the first time in 1963, and he began working at the University of Freiburg on the Low German spoken in Vechta. He completed his doctorate on this subject in Philadelphia in 1965. From 1969 to 1980, Fort taught and researched as Professor of German Studies at the State University of New Hampshire. Two visiting professorships took him to the University of Oldenburg in 1976 and 1982, where he stayed for good in 1986, devoting himself in particular to Sater Frisian and the Low German dialects in the coastal region between the Weser and Ems rivers.

Fort always attached great importance to having a perfect command of the languages he was researching. Not least because of this, he earned high recognition in the region and received numerous honours. He is an honorary citizen of East Frisia, a "naturalised East Frisian" through the award of the indigenisation of the East Frisian landscape and a member of the Fryske Akademy of the province of Friesland.

The Cross of Merit on Ribbon of the Order of Merit of Lower Saxony is awarded in recognition of services of particular importance to the state. This includes, in particular, regionally significant or structurally promoting commitment as well as services to the preservation of culture and local history.