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Honoring Professor of Latin Russell T. 'Darby' Scott

July 19, 2017
Russell T. "Darby" Scott

Professor of Latin Russell T. “Darby” Scott, who joined Bryn Mawr’s faculty in 1966, was honored for his long and illustrious career by President Kim Cassidy at a faculty meeting at the end of the semester.

Below are President Cassidy’s remarks:

We are pouring champagne today so we might honor and celebrate our colleague and friend, Doreen C. Spitzer Professor of Latin and Classical Studies Russell T. “Darby” Scott, on his 50th year of teaching at Bryn Mawr. 

Darby arrived at Bryn Mawr in 1966, having earned his Ph.D. in classics at Yale, where he was the protégé of the influential Roman archaeologist Frank Brown.

After winning a Fulbright Fellowship to Italy, Darby won the American Academy in Rome’s coveted Rome Prize in Classics, which allowed him to begin excavating with Brown at the site of the Latin colony of Cosa in Etruria and later in the Roman Forum.

Darby was appointed Assistant Professor of Latin — in what was then the Department of Latin. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1972 and to Professor in 1978.

In the six decades Darby has been at the College, he has taught both undergraduate and graduate students, supervising 18 doctoral dissertations, 18 masters theses and countless senior essays. 

All the while, he has maintained an active scholarly life on both archeological and literary topics, with publications in 2015 and 2016 on his work in Cosa and additional works forthcoming.

Darby’s time at the College includes service on the Committees on Libraries and Undergraduate Scholarships, the Graduate Council and two separate terms on the Committee to Revise the Plan of Governance — a remarkable distinction!

A few years ago, Darby’s colleagues, former students and others contributed essays and personal recollections to a compilation in honor of Darby’s 70th birthday.

The offerings attest to the importance of his archeological, historical, and philological projects.

I’d like to share an excerpt from Catherine Conybeare’s affectionate essay:

Story after story attests to Darby’s serenity and poise: the caribinieri [Italian police] eluded, the perfect answer delivered, the fluent guided tour in Rome persisting, umbrella-less, through precipitous showers. As his colleague, I see the deftness with which he will propose a solution to an apparently intractable problem: it is part of the same character. This is not the levity of obliviousness or frivolity. Darby takes serious things seriously: witness his passionate and vocal commitment to social justice. It is the lightness of one who sees so deeply into the complicatedness of things that he can reclothe their nakedness with a gracious remark.

Darby, I am grateful for the tremendous service you have given to our Bryn Mawr and I wish you all the best. 

Please join me in raising a glass to Darby Scott, our friend and colleague!

Professor Scott will be teaching the course “The Roman Empire” in the spring of 2018.

Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies