 | A. Dwight Culler |
Renowned scholar of Victorian literature
A memorial service will be held on Saturday, Feb. 11, for A. Dwight Culler, the Emily Sanford Professor of English Emeritus, who died on Jan. 27 in Hamden. He was 88 years old.
The service will take place at 4:30 p.m. at the Whitney Center, 200 Leeder Hill Dr. in Hamden, where Culler had resided.
Culler was a specialist in Victorian literature and chaired the Department of English from 1971 to 1975. He approached the teaching of literature in a broadly humanistic fashion, mingling the concerns of cultural history with those of New Criticism. His major works dealt with the educational thought of John Henry Newman, the poetry of Matthew Arnold and Tennyson, and what he called "the Victorian mirror of history," the habit of the Victorians to perceive analogies between their age and various periods in the past and interpret their age in terms of those analogies.
His books include "The Imperial Intellect: A Study of Newman's Educational Ideal" (1955), "Imaginative Reason: The Poetry of Matthew Arnold" (1966), "The Poetry of Tennyson" (1977) and "The Victorian Mirror of History" (1986).
"Dwight Culler was a world-famous scholar of Victorian literature who also contributed bountifully and effectively to his department and his University," said his former Yale colleague Fred C. Robinson, the Douglas Tracy Smith Professor Emeritus of English. "During my years of teaching at Yale, he was the best department chairman we ever had."
Robinson added that what made Culler stand out as an administrator was his efficiency and fairness. "He had the trust of everybody," he explained. "He never did anything other than what was best for the University and for the English department."
Culler was born on July 25, 1917 in McPherson, Kansas, to Arthur Jerome Culler and Mary Stover Culler. He grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and graduated from Oberlin College in 1938. He earned his Ph.D. in English at Yale in 1941. In that year, he married fellow graduate student in English Helen Lucille Simpson, who has been his wife of 65 years.
Culler taught at Cornell University 1941 to 1942. As a conscientious objector in World War II, he spent three-and-a-half years in Civilian Public Service, working as
a hospital orderly and for the U.S. Forest Service.
"Dwight Culler was a person of great integrity and intensity," says his former colleague Martin Price, Sterling Professor Emeritus of English. "His serving as a conscientious objector [CO] during the war is an illustration of his integrity. He served some time in CO camps rather than take up arms in the war."
After the war, Culler became an assistant professor at Yale. He moved to the University of Illinois in 1955, but returned to Yale as a professor of English in 1958, serving until he retired in 1985.
In addition to his wife, Culler is survived by his children, Elizabeth Culler of Hamden and Jonathan Culler of Ithaca, New York; and three grandchildren: Lea Morrison, Kai Morrison and William Culler-Chase.
T H I S
In Memoriam: A. Dwight Culler
W E E K ' SS T O R I E S
University launching new program to train tomorrow's journalists
Alliance will boost Yale-BIPI research collaborations
INTERNATIONAL YALE
Yale delegates meet with world leaders at Davos
SOM students learn about India's markets during trips
Faculty member named Young Global LeaderYale honored for design of Farmington Canal site
ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIPS
Derek Briggs named the Beinecke Professor of Geology, Geophysics
Joan Feigenbaum appointed the Henry Ford II Professor . . .
Mark Johnson designated the Kemp Professor of Chemistry
Abraham Silberschatz named the Sidney J. Weinberg Professor . . .Black History Month celebration features talks, performances
Team will study atmospheric 'tsunamis' from on high
Study: Even with recycling, there's not enough metal to meet global demand
Works reveal how humans can 'turn ugliness into music'
Comic Mozart opera proclaims 'Women Are Like That'
Art of adornment is focus of 'Baubles, Bangles and Beads'
Modern art collection takes to the road in gallery's traveling exhibit
Guidelines set standards for doctors' relationships with drug companies
Medications reduce brain changes in youths with bipolar disorder
Study illuminates how the body fights viruses without attacking itself
Use of cell phones by medical personnel cuts rate of error . . .
Six Yale scientists receive awards for their research on aging
Exhibit features magical objects from the Babylonian Collection
Chaplain Frederick J. Streets to be honored as a 'trail blazer'
In Memoriam: A. Dwight Culler, renowned scholar of Victorian literature
Yale BioHaven Entrepreneurship Seminar Series . . .
Yale Books in Brief
Campus Notes
Bulletin Home|Visiting on Campus|Calendar of Events|In the News
Bulletin Board|Classified Ads|Search Archives|Deadlines
Bulletin Staff|Public Affairs|News Releases|
E-Mail Us|Yale Home