Kurt Mirk ’54, who attended Bowdoin after being held as an American prisoner of war in World War II, has died in Arolsen, Germany.

He was born on July 26, 1927, in Korbach, Germany, and prepared for college at Realgymnasium. In 1943, he was ordered to work at a German camp in Czechoslovakia. He enlisted in anti-aircraft in Mannheim, and six months later joined the German Labor Service in Luxembourg. He enrolled in the German Army in December 1944, went to the front line, and was taken prisoner. He was an American prisoner of war for one year. He attended Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt from 1949 to 1950 before enrolling at Bowdoin for the 1950-51 school year with the Institute of International Education. He was a member of Sigma Nu fraternity.