Before UD, he was a Fulbright research scholar at the University of Bonn (Germany) where he obtained his undergraduate degree; he went on to obtain his master’s degree at the University of Kentucky and Ph.D. at Michigan State University. He held professorships at the University of Kiel (Germany) and Slovak University (Slovakia). He was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor Honoris Causa from the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra (Slovakia) for the work he did there for several years.

Dr. Elterich began his UD career in 1967. He spent much of his career in the Department of Food and Resource Economics (now Applied Economics and Statistics). His areas of expertise included milk production economics, container port studies, labor markets and optimal farm organizations.

Dr. Elterich was a founding member of the Operations Research Program, which was designed to provide graduate students with strong foundations in the theories and methods of economics, engineering, mathematics and statistics in order to analyze problems from a systems approach. He retired in 1998 but remained a very active faculty member and world traveler, working on many agriculture-related research projects across the globe. He was vice president of the University of Delaware Association of Retired Faculty.

“Prof. Elterich was a very strong supporter of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR),” said Provost Robin Morgan, who previously served as CANR dean. “He attended many college events and celebrations, brightening these occasions with his keen interest in faculty and students.”

A native of Germany, Dr. Elterich never forgot the impetus that started him on this career path – research fellowship funding. He found a way to encourage other graduate students from foreign countries to come to UD and carry out research in agriculture economics. In 2002, he generously created the G. Joachim Elterich Fellowship, which – to this day – provides research support to students from abroad who plan to target operations research or agriculture economics.

His full obituary is available online.

A memorial service for Dr. Elterich will be held at 11 a.m., Sunday, Sept. 2, at St. Paul's Lutheran Church, 701 South College Ave., Newark, with a reception to follow at the church.

Donations can be made in Dr. Elterich’s memory to the G. Joachim Elterich Graduate Assistantship Fund at the University of Delaware.  Please send contributions to: University of Delaware, Gifts Processing, 83 East Main St., 3rd Fl., Newark, DE 19716.  Make checks payable to: ‘University of Delaware’ and include on the memo line “G. Joachim Elterich Graduate Assistantship.” Gifts can also be made on the University of Delaware’s secure website, www.udel.edu/makeagift.