Classics Professor Antony
Raubitschek dies; memorial service Wednesday afternoon
A memorial service will be
held Wednesday, May 12, for Antony E. Raubitschek,
professor emeritus of classics and a scholar of
international reputation. He died May 7 at his home in
Palo Alto at age 86. The service will be at 4 p.m. in St.
Thomas Aquinas Church in Palo Alto.
Born in Vienna in 1912,
Raubitschek was one of a generation of European classical
scholars who came to their maturity after World War I and
were widely known for their expertise in ancient
languages, literature, history and philosophy.
Raubitschek additionally was noted for his mastery of
epigraphy and archaeology.
Among his key achievements
is his study of the Acropolis dedications, a milestone in
the development of archaeological epigraphy; another is
the intellectual and moral influence he exerted, by his
tireless care and attention, on generation after
generation of students.
Raubitschek began his
studies at the University of Vienna. During a year-long
visit to Athens in 1934-35, he met members of the
Austrian and German archaeological institutes in that
city and began to develop an interest in the inscriptions
found on the Acropolis. On his return to Vienna, however,
he chose to write his dissertation on the Latin poet
Lucretius, noting his intellectual debt to the Greek
tradition of the Epicureans.
Raubitschek returned to
Athens as a member of the Austrian Institute. When
Austria was annexed to the Third Reich, the American
epigrapher Benjamin Meritt invited Raubitschek to spend a
year at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton,
where Meritt was editing the inscriptions that were being
unearthed by the American excavations in the Athenian
Agora. On his way to America, Raubitschek stopped in
London and met the English epigrapher Lillian Jeffrey.
They began a scholarly collaboration that resulted in
1949 in the volume Dedications from the Athenian
Akropolis, his most important and enduring
publication.
At the Institute for
Advanced Study, from 1938 to 1942, Raubitschek developed
an interest in early Christian epitaphs, which he
published in 1947. There he also became reacquainted with
Isabelle Kelly, whom he had met in Athens while she was
doing research at the American School of Classical
Studies for her doctorate at Columbia. They married in
1941, beginning a lifelong professional and personal
collaboration.
After teaching at Yale
between 1942 and 1947, Raubitschek returned to Princeton
University as associate professor in 1947. In 1963 he
moved to Stanford as professor of classics, and in 1974
he was appointed Sadie Dernham Patek Professor of
Humanities. Isabelle was appointed to the faculty of the
Art Department, and for many years their Palo Alto home
was a magnet for scholars and students from throughout
the world.
In addition to his ongoing
research and publication, Raubitschek directed a large
number of doctoral dissertations at Stanford. But
colleagues said his greatest joy came from his
undergraduate students. His wide range of knowledge and
personal charm made him a beloved and influential
teacher. He was honored for this work with both the
Walter J. Gores Award for excellence in teaching and the
dean's award for superior teaching. His large courses on
topics such as "Ancient Politics" and
"Classical Athletics" enabled him to share his
enthusiasm for classical culture with a wide range of
students.
One of his special
interests involved studying and teaching about classical
antecedents to American political thought, and especially
the influence of the classics on America's founding
fathers. At the time of his death he was analyzing the
writings of John Quincy Adams, their foundations in
classical learning and their implications for the
formation and growth of the American Republic.
Throughout his life
Raubitschek maintained a vast correspondence with
scholars from around the world. He was a visiting
professor at many institutions, and he received honors in
several countries. In March the president of Austria
awarded him the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and
Art, the highest honor given by the Austrian government
to a private citizen.
Isabelle Raubitschek died
in 1988, and Raubitschek devoted much time and energy to
seeing through to publication (in 1998) her major
scholarly work on the metal objects found in the
excavations at Isthmia in Greece.
The couple's joint
interests included the classical holdings of the Stanford
Museum. Many of those works were purchased by Leland
Stanford shortly after the death of his son to serve as
the inaugural collection for the museum that he and Jane
Stanford planned to build as part of their memorial to
their son. The collection was maintained by Hazel Hansen
until her death in 1962, at which time the Raubitscheks
came to Stanford and continued her work for many years.
Classics Professor Marsh
McCall says that when he came to Stanford in the
mid-1970s, Raubitschek was "already emeritus and
already a legendary figure. He's been my revered
colleague for a quarter century," McCall says,
referring to Raubitschek as "the great intellectual
link to the earlier part of this century and to the great
continental German tradition of classical
scholarship."
McCall, dean of continuing
studies, added that Raubitschek was one of the first
faculty members to step forward to teach in that program
when it was founded 11 years ago. "He probably has
taught more continuing ed courses than any other
person," McCall says. When Raubitschek became too
frail to go into the classroom, many of his continuing
studies students from various classes encouraged him to
teach them from his home, which he did until a few weeks
before his death. "He never stopped giving of
himself."
Raubitschek is survived by
his four children: John of Alexandria, Va.; Kleia Luckner
of Toledo, Ohio; Marita Hopmann of Arlington, Va.; and
Andrew of San Marino, Calif.; and by seven grandchildren.
Contributions may be made
in his memory to the Stanford Classics Department, and
will be used to support student travel abroad. SR
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