Yale Bulletin and Calendar

June 27, 2003|Volume 31, Number 32|Four-Week Issue



BULLETIN HOME

VISITING ON CAMPUS

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

IN THE NEWS

BULLETIN BOARD

CLASSIFIED ADS


SEARCH ARCHIVES

DEADLINES

BULLETIN STAFF


PUBLIC AFFAIRS HOME

NEWS RELEASES

E-MAIL US


YALE HOME PAGE


Thomas Greene



Thomas Greene, renowned literary
scholar, dies at age 77

Thomas McLernon Greene, the Frederick Clifford Ford Professor of English and Comparative Literature, whose tenure on the faculty at Yale spanned five decades, died on June 23 in New Haven.

Professor Greene's career spanned a time during which the field of literary criticism underwent enormous shifts in focus and philosophical outlook. While he engaged actively with these changing points of view, Professor Greene advocated centering the act of criticism on a close examination of text.

Among his books were "The Descent from Heaven: A Study in Epic Continuity," "Rabelais: A Study in Comic Courage," "The Light in Troy: Imitation and Discovery in Renaissance Poetry," "The Vulnerable Text: Essays on Renaissance Literature," "Poésie et Magie" and "Calling from Diffusion: Hermeneutics of the Promenade." "The Light in Troy" won the Harry Levin Prize from the American Comparative Literature Association and the James Russell Lowell Prize from the Modern Language Association.

Professor Greene is remembered by his many students for his unfailing attention, courtesy and quiet enthusiasm. Many of the students he mentored have gone on to careers throughout the academic world. His distinguished teaching was recognized with the 1968 E. Harris Harbison Award from the Danforth Foundation.

"Tom Greene was a giant in the world of scholarship and a profoundly influential teacher, who shaped more than one generation of students of the Renaissance," says David Quint, the George M. Bodman Professor of English and Comparative Literature and chair of the Renaissance Studies Program. "As one of those students, I can attest to the model of scholarly excellence, pedagogical dedication and humane generosity that he set for us."

Noted scholar and critic Harold Bloom, the Sterling Professor of Humanities and English, met Professor Greene soon after they enrolled at Yale as first-year graduate students in 1951. "He and Liliane [his wife] invited me to dinner," and a half-century friendship began, recalls Bloom. "He was certainly one of the handful of great scholar-teacher-critics that I've encountered in my long academic career. He was the pre-eminent Renaissance scholar of his entire generation. In all my years at Yale, Tom was the most deeply learned person I knew. He was honest, open and immensely helpful. In the deepest and best sense, he was a gentleman."

Born in Haddonfield, New Jersey, on May 17, 1926, Thomas Greene attended Yale College, where he majored in English, graduating summa cum laude in 1949. He interrupted his undergraduate career to serve in the U.S. Army, 1945-1947, as a special investigator for the Counter-intelligence Corps. From 1949 to 1951, he studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and then returned to Yale to earn his Ph.D. in 1955 in comparative literature. He was appointed an instructor in English in 1954, and rose through the ranks to become a full professor of English and comparative literature in 1966. He was named to the Ford Professorship in 1978. Over the years, he headed the Directed Studies Program, the Department of Comparative Literature and the Renaissance Studies Program.

Professor Greene retired in 1996 after 42 years of teaching at Yale, but continued his scholarly activities up until the month before he died, completing the final revisions to "Poetry, Signs and Magic," a collection of essays that will appear next year.

After his retirement, Professor Greene also created The Open-End Theater, an amateur drama company that endeavored to inspire middle- and high-school students in New Haven to grapple with the moral dilemmas that surround them and to show them that many of life's questions resist easy or quick resolution. The Open-End Theater has performed for thousands of students over the past several years. Professor Greene received the Elm-Ivy Award and was honored by the Arts Council of New Haven for his work in the Open End Theater.

A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a recipient of the Medal of the College de France, Professor Greene served as president of the Renaissance Society of America and was an officer of the International Comparative Literature Association, the American Comparative Literature Association and the Modern Language Association. In 1999, the Renaissance Society of America awarded him the Paul Oskar Kristeller Lifetime Achievement Award, in recognition of his "uncompromising devotion to the highest standards of scholarship." He was the first scholar of literature to be given this honor.

An avid ping-pong, tennis and squash player in his youth, Professor Greene was known throughout his life for his near fanatic dedication to the Philadelphia Phillies.

Professor Greene is survived by his wife of 54 years, Liliane Greene; three sons, Philip J. of Branford, Connecticut, Christopher G. of Madison, Connecticut, and Francis R. of Highland Park, Illinois; and five grandchildren.

A memorial service in Professor Greene's honor will be held at Yale in the fall.


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

Faculty win Blue Planet Prize; second Yale win in two years

Renowned neurosurgeon named acting dean of Medical School

High school students sample university life

City youths learn the fine art of playwriting

Changes in cloud elevation may affect Northeastern forests . . .

Students' winning house design parts with tradition

Summer music flourished under pianist's direction

MEDICAL SCHOOL NEWS

Yale artist's painting wins award from National Academy of Art

Two faculty members elected into renowned society

Yale Glee Club has named its newest director

ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES

Law professor Burke Marshall dies . . .

Thomas Greene, renowned literary scholar, dies at age 77

Leonard Kaplow dies; renowned pathologist

Symposium honors Shulman's work with NMR

Yale Books in Brief

Campus Notes


Bulletin Home|Visiting on Campus|Calendar of Events|In the News

Bulletin Board|Yale Scoreboard|Classified Ads|Search Archives|Deadlines

Bulletin Staff|Public Affairs Home|News Releases| E-Mail Us|Yale Home Page