Karl Krause ’71 P08

Karl W. Krause Jr., 47, longtime Chicago resident, loving husband of Laura Molzahn; loving father of Jocelyn Krause; loving son of Karl Krause Sr. and the late Dorothy Krause; cherished brother of Kent (Alease) Krause; fond uncle of Kimberly and Michael Krause.

I knew Karl “Kip” Krause at Carleton because we were both RAs in Burton in 1970-71. His wife, Laura Molzahn ’72, lived on 4^th Burton where I did.

Their lives were entwined with the Reader, the free weekly newspaper founded in Chicago in October 1971 by Bob Roth ’69, Tom Rehwaldt ’70,  Bob McCamant ’71, and Nancy Banks, ’71, soon joined by  Tom Yoder ’70 and several others, not Carleton graduates. At one time in those earliest days, all the delivery drivers for the Reader’s Thursday afternoon distribution were Northwestern University philosophy grad students, and Krause (as he was called by then; Kip was a family nickname he used at Carleton) was the first paid driver. Most papers were dropped off at bars and restaurants but Krause was allowed to distribute papers on the Northwestern campus because he was a student.

In the late 1970s, before finishing his degree, he replaced a philosophy professor on leave from Valparaiso University (Indiana).  After Karl taught philosophy there for four years, he and Laura returned to Chicago and he enrolled in law school at the University of Chicago. He finished the PhD work and earned both his doctorate and a JD in 1982. As a Chicago lawyer, he worked first at Sachnoff, Weaver and Rubenstein, then in the in-house corporate-law department of Aon Corporation. 

Laura was also a Northwestern PhD student (English), and she finished her degree while working in display ads for the Reader. For many years, both for the Reader and for the Chicago Tribune, she wrote reviews of dance performances.

I encountered Karl and Laura more often starting in the mid-1990s when they and their daughter showed up at All Saints’ Episcopal Church, where I was organist and choir director. We used to laugh about what a long way we’d come from RA meetings with Dean Jean Phillips. (A major issue between Burton RAs and Dean Phillips was whether our roles/jobs as RAs required us to report student drug use.) When Krause died in 1997, I was honored to play the music for his funeral.

Karl and Laura’s daughter Jocelyn Krause graduated from Carleton in 2008.  She lives in New York and is a labor organizer.

Thanks to Laura Molzahn ’72 for confirming my memories, correcting mis-remembered chronology, and adding more details to this remembrance.

Margaret Loud McCamant ‘71