Many of these obituaries of departed CAMWS members were written by Ward Briggs, the CAMWS historian.
Edward Courtney
University of VirginiaDied November 24, 2019
In Memoriam Edward Courtney
Edward Courtney, Basil L. Gildersleeve Professor of Classics Emeritus at the University of Virginia, passed away peacefully on 24 November 2019. He was born March 22nd,1932 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and retained his Belfast accent throughout his life. After an outstanding career as an undergraduate at Trinity College, Dublin, where he won medals for his translations into Greek and Latin verse, he was a Research Lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford, before being appointed in 1959 to a Lectureship at King's College, London, eventually being promoted to Professor. In 1982 he and his family emigrated to the United States, where he was Ely Professor of Classics at Stanford University; but, when the Gildersleeve Chair of Classics was inaugurated at the University of Virginia, Ted became its first holder in 1993, retiring in 2002.
He started publishing in 1954 with a review of A.Y. Campbell's edition of Horace, a favourite author, and amongst his many publications, which in total amount to over 130 items, are eleven books: critical editions of Valerius Flaccus (1970), Ovid's Fasti (1978, in collaboration), Juvenal (1984), the poems of Petronius (1984), and Statius' Silvae (1990); commentaries on Juvenal (1980), the fragmentary Latin poets (1993), Latin verse inscriptions (1995), and archaic Latin prose (1999); in collaboration with his friend Niall Rudd he also wrote a more elementary commentary on selected satires of Juvenal for use in schools (1977). He said at the time that A Companion to Petronius (2001) would be his last book, and so it proved, but for the next decade and a half he continued to produce a stream of incisive articles on a wide range of Latin texts. Reviewing his Fragmentary Latin Poets in 1999, Michael Reeve said that 'it is hard to think of any other scholar alive today who could have tackled with such erudition and such independence of judgement the whole range from the minor works of Ennius to Tiberianus and Symmachus'. Twenty years later these words serve as an appropriate memorial of the friend and scholar we have lost.
Professor Courtney is survived by his wife of 57 years, Brenda, and one son.
Published at http://classics.as.virginia.edu/memoriam-edward-courtney.
Leslie Muller Cahoon, formerly of Gettysburg, died in her sleep Sunday morning, Nov. 10, after a years-long battle with Alzheimer's.
She was a beloved professor of Classics at Gettysburg College for nearly 25 years.
She is predeceased by her husband, John, and is survived by her brother, Gereg Muller, and two daughters, Annie Cahoon of Oakland, California, and Margaret Linkous of Detroit, Michigan, and their spouses and children.
Memorial and burial will be private, to be held at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California.
Mark Percy Owen Morford was born in Sri Lanka, the son of a tea merchant. He received his secondary education in England at Winchester College and earned a B.A. and M.A. from Oxford. He received his Ph.D. from the University of London. He began his teaching career at preparatory schools in Kent England then in Baltimore, then back to England's Lansing College before moving into CAMWS territory where he was a loyal member for three decades and President in 1981-2. He settled in first at Ohio State, where he taught from 1964 to 1984 and chaired the department from 1968 to 1980. He then moved to the University of Virginia from 1984 to 1998. His final academic position was as Kennedy Professor of Classics at Smith College. He is best remembered for his widely used textbook on Classical Mythology (with Robert Lenardon and Michael Sham) and also for his studies of Juvenal, Persius, and Justus Lipsius. Mark Morford died on October 14, 2019 in Amherst, Ma, at the age of 90.
Mark Owen Lee
University of Toronto (ON)Died July 25, 2019
Lee, Mark Owen (1930-2019)
Fr. Mark Owen Lee was a beloved fixture at the University of Toronto, to which he devoted nearly 30 years of his life. Guided by his study of the analytical psychology of Carl Jung, he patiently studied the works of his beloved Virgil in books like Fathers and Sons in Vergil's Aeneid (1979), Death and Rebirth in Virgil's Arcadia (1989) Virgil as Orpheus: A Study of the Georgics (1996). Fr. Lee is, however, best remembered by the sophisticated public as a longtime panelist on the Texaco Opera Quiz, where he answered questions with remarkable alacrity (he was often the first to raise his hand to answer) and with a seemingly fathomless depth of knowledge about opera. He died on January 25, 2019 in Scarborough, Ontario at the age of 89.
Damaris Moore Corrigan
University of GeorgiaDied May 28, 2019
Dr. Damaris Moore Corrigan, 58, passed away on May 28, 2019 after a 25-year battle with Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH). The granddaughter of Chester A. "Ted" and Pauline Bell and daughter of Nicky R. and Maurice Moore of Opelika, Alabama, Damaris was a graduate of Opelika High School in Alabama. She went on to take her B.A. from Newcomb College in New Orleans, Summa Cum Laude, in 1983, Honours from St. Andrews University, Scotland (Latin), J.D. Tulane School of Law (Legal History), M.A. Tulane University (Classics), Ph.D. University of Texas-Austin (Classics) before accepting a position as professor of Latin, Ancient Greek, Roman Law and Ancient Military History at the University of Georgia, Athens, Department of Classics. She studied under some of the world's leading thinkers and educators, spoke Latin, Ancient Greek, Italian, German, and French and was the author of a book, Riders on High: The Cavalry of Alexander the Great, as well as several journal articles. An accomplished and exceptionally knowl- edgeable horse woman and equestrienne, Damaris won many Western riding competitions and was a lifelong member of the American Quarter Horse Association and the Foundation Quarter Horse Association. Her finest personal accomplishment may have been her marriage, which began August 6, 1986, for she and her husband were inseparable, devoted, content and, owing to her life-threatening disease, lived every day to the fullest. They truly lived as 'happily ever after' as the good Lord allows. Dedicated to a life of learning, Damaris traveled extensively with him through the United Kingdom and Italy, where she leaves many friends, and made a second home of Windsor, England. Her friends and family will remember her as an extraordinarily intelligent woman whose profound knowledge and phenomenal memory was equaled by her quiet kindness, extraordinary wit and sense of humor, and unfailing consideration of others. She lived every day up to her personal code of honesty and integrity and was truly incapable of telling a falsehood or bracing a lie. She practiced the art of compassionate and diplomatic silence better than anyone. In short, she knew the secret of a happy life, shared it with a loving husband and earned his admiration, pride, and love with every precious breath she took. She leaves behind countless students bettered by her skill and dedication, a wealth of friends, two beloved brothers, Jeff and Peter Moore, their wives who were like her own sisters, Wanda and Joan Moore, three cherished nieces, Victoria Spates (Paul), Tiffany Sanders (Jason), and Taylor Moore, and a sister as well as a father- and mother-in-law whom she loved as her own parents, Sheldon and Constance Bernstein of Leawood, Kansas, and her husband of thirty-three years, Dr. Brian Jay Corrigan, who is her soul mate for whom another thirty-three years would have still been all-too-short a time to spend in her extraordinary, admirable and deeply loved company. Memorial service to be held at Central Baptist Church, 2:00 p.m. Saturday, June 15, Lunch at noon. No flowers, please bring happy memories of Damaris to share. Her ashes will reside at her home until her husband can join her, at which time they will be scattered together at their home in England. Dahlonega Funeral Home of Dahlonega, GA, 706-864-3683, is in charge of arrangements.
Barbara Tsakirgis
Vanderbilt UniversityDied January 16, 2019
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE – Barbara Tsakirgis, a noted scholar on ancient Greek domestic architecture as well as a strong community advocate for Nashville's Parthenon, died Jan. 16, 2019. Tsakirgis, 64, had been diagnosed with ALS three years ago and died at her home, Vanderbilt University announced in a news release.
She was a professor of classical studies, emerita, and history of art, emerita, who joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 1984.
Barbara Tsakirgis, a noted scholar on ancient Greek domestic architecture as well as a strong community advocate for Nashville's Parthenon, died Jan. 16. Tsakirgis, 64, had been diagnosed with ALS three years ago and died at her home.
She was a professor of classical studies, emerita, and history of art, emerita, who joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 1984.
"Barbara Tsakirgis had a huge impact on the field of classical archaeology—in scholarship, in leadership roles and in her generosity with her time and thoughts to students and colleagues alike," said Betsey A. Robinson, associate professor of history of art and acting department chair. "She was a dedicated teacher, known for being tough but caring, and some of her best students have followed in her footsteps to become professors of classical art and archaeology."
Tsakirgis was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and earned her Bachelor of Arts from Yale University, where she graduated cum laude in 1976. She then enrolled at Princeton University, where, as a graduate assistant, she began excavating and studying the domestic architecture of the Hellenistic and Roman periods at Morgantina, an ancient town in central Sicily. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 1980 and studied at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Greece.
