Police say 85-year-old drowned in Chapel Hill Eastwood Lake

Chapel Hill police have identified an 85-year-old man who drowned while swimming in a neighborhood lake Tuesday as a prominent, longtime UNC history professor.

A 911 caller reported that the man, Konrad Jarausch, went missing in Eastwood Lake, off South Lakeshore Drive, around 11 a.m., Chapel Hill police said in a news release.

Police and the Chapel Hill Fire Department personnel launched search and rescue efforts, with help from law enforcement, fire and emergency services crews from Orange, Chatham, Alamance and Durham counties.

Jarausch’s body was found at around 2:30 p.m., the release said. No other information was provided.

Association warned swimmers of risk

Eastwood Lake is a privately owned community lake managed by the Lake Forest Association, which allows members of the community to fish, boat and swim in its waters.

However, members have been warned to swim at their own risk since 2015, when the association decided against lifeguards. That was due in part to the inherent dangers of swimming in open bodies of water, which can have currents, changes in depth, wildlife, and low visibility, the association said in a 2021 release posted online.

“Please keep an extraordinarily close eye on your children, keep any who are not confident and independent swimmers within arm’s reach, and consider life vests during swimming and, of course, while boating,” the release stated.

The following year, an 18-year-old Pittsboro resident drowned while swimming in Eastwood Lake. Christian Poteat Jr. was a recent graduate of Northwood High School when he died on June 17, 2022. He had been a cornerback and wide receiver on the varsity football team.

Who is Konrad Jarausch?

County land records show Jarausch lived with his wife on Ridgecrest Drive, just a few hundred feet from the lake. He was a professor emeritus in history at UNC-Chapel Hill and had written or edited roughly 40 books about modern German and European history, according to his online biography.

Born in 1941 in Magdeburg, Germany, and raised in Bavaria and the Rhineland, Jarausch later immigrated to the United States and became a U.S. citizen, earning his master’s degree and doctorate from the University of Wisconsin in the 1960s, records show.

In 1983, he was hired to be the Lurcy Professor of European Civilization at UNC and was co-director of the UNC/Duke Center for European Studies from 1994-1998, according to his online resume. He also served as director of the Zentrum für Zeithistorische Studien in Potsdam, Germany, from 1998 to 2006, and co-founded the Center for European Studies at UNC.

A co-director at the Potsdam institute praised Jarausch’s scholarly and personal pursuits at his 65th birthday celebration in 2006.

Jarausch was known for his physical stamina, his friendliness, and his love of sports, from jogging, swimming and tennis to skiing, said Christoph Kleßmann, a professor of contemporary history at the University of Potsdam.

“I distinctly remember Konrad becoming visibly restless in the late afternoons after long project discussions or institute exams,” Kleßmann said. “Whereas others, including myself, would be more likely to withdraw to a pub, he first had to go swimming or jogging to reduce the academic stress. This left him ready to take up work on one of his many books the next morning at home with renewed energy.”

Online sources show Jarausch and his wife were also top donors to Swim Across America, which raises money through charity swims to fight cancer by funding innovative research, clinical trials, and detection and patient programs.

This story was initially printed September 1, 2026 at 3:21 PM.