Beloved husband, father, grandfather, colleague, teacher and, therapist, Norbert A. Wetzel, ThD, died at his home in Princeton, New Jersey, on April 27, 2025. He was 88 years old.
Norbert was born September 16, 1936, in Berlin, Germany, to Dr. Anton Wetzel and Maria (Kübel) Wetzel. During World War II, he spent his childhood in the peaceful village of Fehlheim on his uncle’s farm. After the war, his parents moved to Stuttgart, where Norbert attended gymnasium (high school). He completed a doctorate in Theology at the University of Innsbruck in Austria where his dissertation addressed crisis intervention and suicide prevention. During this period he was also ordained as a Catholic priest.
Norbert’s lifelong career of integrating counseling and social justice began shortly thereafter in Frankfurt, where he managed a suicide hotline and provided ongoing counseling. In the late 1960s, he became a leader in the radical priest movement in West Germany, which advocated for a progressive reimagining of the Catholic church. A growing commitment to counseling and frustration with the Catholic church led him to leave the priesthood and to pursue further training in family therapy. In 1975, he attended a postgraduate clinical training program at the Ackerman Institute for the Family in New York City, where he met his partner in love and work, Hinda Winawer, an Ashkenazi Jew from Brooklyn. The couple eventually moved to Princeton and were married in their backyard in 1979.
Norbert’s professional career was long and varied, but always dedicated to understanding and supporting people within their bio-psycho-social context. He and Hinda founded the Princeton Family Institute, where Norbert would go on to provide short- and long-term psychotherapy to families, couples, and individuals for over four decades. Later, they founded the Center for Family, Community, and Social Justice, which trained mental health and human services professionals to support and facilitate the development of children, adolescents, and adults within their families and communities in nine school districts across New Jersey. In the context of this work, Norbert developed the Kaleidoscope of Contextual Lenses, a practical tool in his model of Context-Centered Family Systems Therapy, an alternative to positivist linear, biologically-oriented thinking. In addition to training and counseling, Norbert taught for decades at the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University. He authored several books and published many professional articles over the years, most recently in 2024.
Outside of his work, Norbert was a thinker known for his kind and gentle demeanor, a man who delighted in the small beauties and joys of this imperfect world, including a cardinal at the bird feeder, strong coffee, and good bread. He was an avid bicycle rider who did multiple long-distance cycling rides, including 500 miles in six days in Alaska to support AIDS research. A naturally curious person, Norbert traveled extensively, but particularly loved the alps of Südtirol and Martha’s Vineyard. He was a life-long student of philosophy and lover of classical music.
Norbert was predeceased by his parents, his sister, Gudula Wetzel, and his brother, Dr. Peter Wetzel. He is survived by his wife, Hinda Winawer; his brothers Winfried Wetzel and Dr. Konrad Wetzel; his children and their spouses, Erik Steiner and Tara Grote; Kurt Steiner and Amy Biltekoff; Sarah Winawer-Wetzel and Catherine Deneke (and his grandchildren Noah and Ezra); and Andreas Winawer-Wetzel. He leaves behind a legacy of many grateful students and colleagues.
A funeral and remembrance of life was held at Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church on Thursday, May 1, followed by a private burial in Princeton Cemetery and shiva at the family home. Memorial donations may be made to the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen.
