Dean Hellman is sad to inform the SFS community of the passing of Prof. Charles Pirtle, who during his 25 year career at Georgetown, became an icon of the SFS. He shared this eloquent remembrance with SFS faculty and staff written by Prof. Pirtle’s long-time colleague and friend, Prof. Anthony Clark Arend, Professor of Government and Foreign Service and Chair of the Department of Government. SFS will announce in due course a proper memorial to recognize his extraordinary impact on the school and generations of SFS students.
It is with deep sadness that the School of Foreign Service shares the passing of Professor Charlie Pirtle.
Professor Pirtle was a force of nature at Georgetown. More than anyone else, he is responsible for developing and shaping the signature “Map of the Modern World” course. A student of political geography and geopolitics, Professor Pirtle brought both a deep knowledge of the natural sciences and the social sciences to his teaching and research.
Professor Pirtle came to the School of Foreign Service in the early 1980s, where he first served as the Director of the BSFS Program. He would later become Dean of Faculty and play a critical role in building a world-class faculty in both the School and the Department of Government. He also worked with the SFS Fellows Programs, which brought practitioners to the School for a year-long program.
Thousands of Georgetown graduates will most remember Professor Pirtle for “Map.” Professor Pirtle’s encyclopedic knowledge of both physical and political geography shone in the classroom. Professor Pirtle was a kind, caring person, who would meet for hours with students and served as a mentor to hundreds. As Dean Emeritus Peter F. Krogh would write in his 2018 book, From the Dean’s Desk:
When Charlie retired, so too did an era. The “Map of the Modern World” would go on, but it would forever miss the exacting, colorful and loveable man who invented the course.
Professor Pirtle retired from Georgetown in 2005 and moved back to Ohio with his wife. On July 1, 2020, Professor Pirtle was the guest for the webinar “SFS Online and On Topic.” The webinar, which was attended by about 400 Georgetown alumni, is detailed with a link to the full webinar at Legendary SFS Professor Charles Pirtle Offers a Retrospective on His Beloved Map of the Modern World Course.
Professor Pirtle will be greatly missed. Many alumni of the University will miss him, and be forever grateful for what they learned from Professor Pirtle.