Philip North Lockhart (1928-2011)

Philip N. Lockhart, the Asbury J. Clark Chair of Latin Emeritus at Dickinson College where he taught for twenty-seven years, died on February 20, 2011. Professor Lockhart earned his B.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania, his M.A. in Comparative Literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and his Ph.D. in Classics from Yale University.

A brilliant teacher and mentor, "Uncle Phil," as he was fondly known to his students, won the Ganoe Memorial Award for inspirational teaching at Dickinson three times and was on the founding committee for the American Philological Association's annual teaching award. Edward Cohen, who had studied with Professor Lockhart at the University of Pennsylvania, established a fellowship in his name at the American School in Athens. Professor Lockhart guided countless students to become teachers of the classics in schools and colleges across the country, forty of whom were able to return for his memorial service. Like many, I received a letter from Professor Lockhart, even before I arrived for my freshman year, encouraging me to continue my study of Latin at Dickinson. I was not convinced, however, until Phil gave a guest lecture on Vergil in my freshman English course. The golden bough, he argued, was shaped like the letter Y, which in antiquity was a symbol of the pattern of human life; in plucking the bough, Aeneas was at the crossroads, making his choice to live a heroic life.

Professor Lockhart, a devout Presbyterian, believed in the wisdom that could be found in texts, but he did not engage in a battle of the books or overtly evangelize. He had a synthesizing imagination, which could seamlessly connect past and present. When the failure of a reactor at Three Mile Island nearby suspended classes for a week, Phil offered a mini-seminar on the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, showing how Pliny the Younger turned to Vergil for support while the disaster unfolded. Professor Lockhart could effortlessly condense big ideas into pithy maxims: "Latin is easy to begin with and becomes harder; Greek is hard to begin with and becomes easier"; or "The heart of a Latin sentence can be found in the noun; in a Greek sentence, in the verb."

Professor Lockhart had an uncanny ability to find four-leaf clovers, one of which he gave to a former student, a prized keepsake to this day. He lived his life with a sly smile on his face and joy in his heart. When I introduced him to a friend and explained that he had written his dissertation "under" Professor X, Phil emended my text to say "around." Phil mentored students even if they chose not to become classics majors or to become teachers; there was always a line outside his office. Even after he suffered a stroke in 2002, Professor Lockhart welcomed students into his home to teach them New Testament Greek or to meet their families when they returned for reunions. Some said that students majored in Lockhart, not in Latin; but in truth they majored in Lockhart, Latin, and Life, a mighty triumvirate.

Professor Lockhart is survived by his wife, Elizabeth Ayer Lockhart, whom he met when both were studying Latin at Yale; by his son, Dr. Bruce Lockhart; and by his daughter Betsy Wood. To read tributes to Phil written by students, colleagues, and friends, and to see photos of his teaching career, visit http://blogs.dickinson.edu/lockhart.