Yale Bulletin and Calendar

March 29-April 5, 1999

Volume 27, Number 26

This year's DeVane Medals
go to two English professors

Two English professors whose own passion for language and literature has inspired the same love in their students have been awarded this year's William Clyde DeVane Medals.

Martin Price, Sterling Professor Emeritus of English, and Fred C. Robinson, the Douglas Tracy Smith Professor of English, were awarded the medals by the Yale chapter of Phi Beta Kappa on March 2.

The William Clyde DeVane Medal is the oldest and the most distinguished award for instruction at Yale College. It has been conferred annually since 1966 by the Yale chapter of Phi Beta Kappa for outstanding scholarship and undergraduate teaching. The medal is named for a former dean of Yale College (1938-63), who was a long-time president of the Yale chapter of Phi Beta Kappa and a former president of the United Chapters of the scholarly society.

Each year, graduate members of the society's Yale chapter honor one retired member of the faculty by vote of the graduate officers and board of graduate advisors. Members of the Yale College senior class award the medal to an active member of the faculty. Richard H. Brodhead, dean of Yale College and the A. Bartlett Giamatti Professor of English, presented the award to Price at Phi Beta Kappa's annual banquet, while senior Alyssa Wise of Saybrook College gave the honor to Robinson.

"Having established himself as one of this century's preeminent scholars of 18th-century British literature, work reflected in his important book 'To the Palace of Wisdom,' Martin Price also pioneered in the literary study of the novel, an effort that culminated in the classic 'Forms of Life,'" Brodhead said of his colleague. "In addition to writing literary criticism of the highest order, he inspired (and daunted) generations of students with the example of his finely discriminating sensitivity, his continual precision of phrase, and his breadth of cultural knowledge and curiosity."

Price earned his M.A. from the University of Iowa in 1940 and served briefly in the United States Army during World War II. After the war, he joined the Yale faculty and earned his Ph.D. in 1950. He was appointed a full professor in 1964, was named the Thomas E. Donnelly Professor in 1971, and was appointed a Sterling Professor in 1978. In addition the works mentioned above, Price's other books include "Swift's Rhetorical Art."

Robinson, a leading scholar of Old English and the history of the English language, has been a member of the faculty since 1972. His numerous books include "The Tomb of Beowulf and Other Essays on Old English" and "The Editing of Old English."

"Professor Robinson approaches teaching with the same passion that has fired his own education and scholarship," said Wise in presenting the DeVane Medal. "He interacts with his students as more than just learners, but as friends with whom he is beginning an intellectual relationship to be continued throughout their academic paths. ... [T]he connections he makes with the freshmen in his English 125 class are the beginnings of friendships which may be continued in other English classes, or over a cup of tea at the Elizabethan Club."

Wise also gave examples of Robinson's dedication to students beyond the classroom. She described how Robinson helped one student make living and study arrangements in England, and recounted a Yale senior's tale about how the professor continued to read and be interested in her work into her senior year, even though she hadn't taken a course with him since she was a freshman.

Robinson earned his Ph.D. in both English and comparative linguistics from the University of North Carolina. He taught at Stanford and Cornell universities before coming to Yale. He was appointed the Douglas Tracy Smith Professor in 1983.

During the Phi Beta Kappa awards ceremony, J.D. McClatchy, editor of the Yale Review, recited a poem he had written for the occasion. It is the fourth poem in what is projected to be a series of original poems commissioned by the chapter.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

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Happy 350th Birthday, Elihu!--Yale will honor the man for whom it is named
Photosynthesis in a test tube? Scientists find a way . . .
Noted historian to present talk on 'moral authority' of U.S. presidency
Bennett will continue efforts to strengthen Yale's libraries
This year's DeVane Medals go to two English professors
League commissioner David Stern to speak on managing 'Global NBA'
Drama student sharing her love of dance in campus classes
Technology's impact on nation is topic of Sheffield Lecture
Coach Dick Kuchen resigning after 13 years at the helm . . .
'Missing' work will be performed for first time in nearly 40 years
Vladimir Petrov dies -- taught Russian at Yale
Grants support innovative new projects using digital media
Campus Notes