Memorial Minute for Isaac Jacob Meyers

The Editors, Associate Editors, and Editorial Board of the American Journal of Philology and the Journals Division of the Johns Hopkins University Press were very saddened to learn of the tragic death of Isaac Meyers in a traffic accident in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on March 17, 2008.

Isaac was hired in 2006 to help proofread the Latin and Greek for AJP on the recommendation of Kathleen Coleman, one of his teachers at Harvard. He was singled out as being intelligent, reliable, a good philologist, and careful with the many details that bedevil the editors of journals. Isaac, from New York City, majored in Classics (Latin) as an undergraduate at Yale, and then completed a Masters degree in Jewish Studies at St. Peter’s College, Oxford, before entering the graduate program in Classical Philology at Harvard in Fall 2004. He was an outstanding student. He was particularly interested in issues of translation in Antiquity, and he was in the process of choosing a topic for his dissertation.

Isaac more than exceeded our expectations at AJP. He not only corrected the errors that inevitably creep into even the most carefully prepared manuscript, but he also cast his eagle eye over the many other languages in the articles and noted infelicities of punctuation and style. His strictures, always written with a firm hand, served to make even the most sure-footed author blanch. He was remembered, as an article about him in the Harvard Crimson said, for “his meticulous attention to detail and his love of learning” (Ahmed Mabruk, 3/18/2008).

Isaac Meyers was someone who seemed older and wiser than his years. He was, according to the Crimson, an active member of the Jewish community who is remembered by friends and family for his kindness and his sense of humor. His was a life snuffed out far too soon. We join with his family, friends and colleagues in mourning his passing. He will be greatly missed.