Anna Shaw Benjamin (1926–2013)

One of the most distinguished classicists of her generation, Anna Shaw Benjamin died at her home in Piscataway, New Jersey, on July 21, 2013, listening to the Beethoven String Quartets she loved.

Having learned Latin and Greek at home from her father, Anna earned both her master’s degree and doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. While a graduate student, Anna attended the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, beginning her long association with that institution, and won two fellowships, including a Fulbright. She started her archaeological career while at the American School, doing pioneering work on dialect inscriptions and linguistic problems in the graffiti from the Athenian Agora. Anna later served as Director of the American School’s Summer Institute and throughout her career she returned most summers to dig at the Agora, and later at Aphrodisias in Turkey.

Anna began her teaching career at Juniata College in Pennsylvania in 1951, and after receiving her Ph.D. in 1955, moved to the University of Missouri-Columbia, where she rose to being Chair of the Department of Classics and Archaeology. In 1964, she came to Rutgers University as Professor of Classics. Over the next two decades Anna served the Department at various times as Chair and/or Director of Graduate Studies, and also served as University Senator and as President of the Rutgers chapter of the American Association of University Professors. Anna was responsible for the establishment of the Archaeology program within the Classics Department and served as the editor of Archaeology for five years. While she officially retired from Rutgers in 1987, she continued to teach on occasion at Rutgers and at Drew University through the 1990s.

I first met Anna as a Classics undergraduate at Rutgers forty-five years ago, and over the years we became lifelong friends. She was always full of energy and fun, an inspiring teacher, and a mentor to me and generations of students.

Among the many awards and honors Anna received during her scholarly career were twice being named as a visiting scholar in Classical Archaeology at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. In 1979, Anna was inducted as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. She also served as a member of a National Endowment for the Humanities Advisory Panel, on the Executive Board of the American Philological Association, on the Governing Board of the American Institute of Archaeology, and on the National Coordinating Board for Archaeological Societies. The Classical Association of the Atlantic States celebrated Anna’s career with an ovatio in 1992, and in 1994 the AIA recognized her lifetime achievements by awarding her the Martha and Artemis Joukowsky Distinguished Service Award. Anna was also a longtime member of the New Jersey Classical Association, and, in a final grand gesture of generosity, she left her classics library to the NJCA to support its Edna White Rome Scholarship.