On the Death of Dr. John Coates

The Department of English Philology mourns the loss of Dr. John Coates, our long-time and highly esteemed colleague and friend, who passed away on November 16, 2024.

Dr. Coates, born in 1937, devoted his life to teaching and writing and also largely to being a semi-professional jazz musician. After winning scholarships to Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, he worked as a lawyer in London for several years. Following extensive visits to Poland, he decided to change careers and become a lecturer of English as a foreign language. He studied Linguistics at Reading and later on worked in several European countries such as Finland (Jyväskylä University), Hungary (Debrecen University), and the Mediterraneans. In the early 1970s he started working in Germany at Göttingen University, where he wrote a doctorate on Pronunciation and Personality. He stayed in Göttingen for the rest of his working life, teaching English and British Law until November 2021, when he suffered a severe stroke. He has published a series of books on Phonetics and English Language Teaching, several articles on his specialised fields of Phonetics and Phonology, as well as a two-volume autobiography.

We say farewell to John, whose great professional competence, cordiality, and subtle sense of humour have always been an inspiration for us, and we will miss very much. Our deepest sympathy goes to his wife Gabriele, his family, and friends.

The members of the Seminar für Englische Philologie