IN MEMORIAM

Anthony William Bulloch

Professor of Classics

UC Berkeley

1942 – 2014

Anthony William Bulloch, Professor of Classics and Assistant Dean in the College of Letters and Science, died May 26, 2014, after a long illness bravely borne. His passing deprived the campus of an exceptionally devoted teacher and undergraduate adviser.

 

Born in London, in August 1942, Anthony was educated at University College School, London and at King’s College, Cambridge, where he excelled as a Classics undergraduate and graduate student, receiving the B.A. (1964), M.A. (1968) and Ph.D. (1971). He also studied at the British School at Rome and at the University of Freiburg in Breisgau. Anthony began his teaching career as a fellow of King’s College and member of the Cambridge University Classics Faculty. He also served at King’s as Dean, a position that made him the college officer principally responsible for student welfare. Access to the college’s capacious cellar, as a wine steward, gave him an exquisite nose for fine vintages some of which made their way to California. During this time Anthony played a leading part in the Joint Association of Classical Teachers, a national organization founded to coordinate the teaching of Classics in British high schools as well as universities. In 1976 he moved to Berkeley as Lecturer for his first year, then as tenure-track Assistant Professor of Classics. Promotion to tenure followed in 1979, and to Full Professor in 1986.

 

Anthony rapidly achieved an international reputation by his seminal contributions to the emerging field of Hellenistic literature. It was his expertise in this area that made him a great catch for Berkeley. Between 1973 and 2006 he published articles on all the main Hellenistic poets including Apollonius Rhodius, Theocritus, and Callimachus. In 1985 his monograph on Callimachus’s Fifth Hymn appeared in the distinguished series Cambridge Greek and Latin Commentaries. That same year he published a book-length chapter “Hellenistic Poetry” in The Cambridge History of Classical Literature. I: Greek Literature, edited by P. E. Easterling and B. M. W. Knox. In a review of this massive volume for the New York Review of Books (January 1987), Anthony’s gracefully written chapter is described as “the prize for giving a fresh and stimulating account of what might seem relatively unpromising material.” Thirty years later his work remains a primary resource for scholars and students of Hellenistic poetry.

 

In 1988 Anthony was co-organizer of a large-scale international conference on the Hellenistic world held at Berkeley. He also co-edited the resulting volume for the University of California Press, Images and Ideologies: Self-Definition in the Hellenistic World (1993). Along with his departmental colleagues Erich Gruen, Tony Long, and Andrew Stewart, Anthony edited the University of California Press monograph series Hellenistic Culture and Society, which published a total of 55 volumes over a period of more than two decades. He was far along in work on a major textbook about Classical Mythology, under contract with Thames and Hudson, at the time of his death.

 

Anthony served on numerous departmental committees during his long tenure at Berkeley. In the early years he was prominent on the committee responsible for selecting the campus’s annual Sather Professor of Classical Literature, and in redesigning the graduate program. More recently he took a strong interest in the Bancroft Library’s large collection of Greek papyri and also in the Classics Department’s archaeological work at Nemea in the Peloponnese. As a member of the Nemea Center Advisory Committee, he was an ardent supporter of Berkeley's strong commitment to continuing these important excavations and to promoting the training that they offer our students during the summer vacation.         

               

He had an outstanding grasp of Greek and Latin philology, including both languages’ complex metrical systems. These were one of his favorite subjects for graduate instruction, but it was as a teacher of undergraduates, especially general students, that he excelled. His annual course on Greek mythology, thanks to his story-telling skills and engaging manner, attracted the department’s greatest enrolment by far, and he also drew a large and appreciative audience for his regular course on Greek religion. For both offerings he enlisted enthusiastic graduate student instructors. Out of many accolades we have received about his teaching, we select two for inclusion here: “Anthony was kind and extremely knowledgeable. He was motivated by a genuine passion both for the subject matter and for the welfare of his students (as well as his GSIs). In particular, he was committed to helping them find their own paths of inquiry and broaden their cultural perspectives. He made himself very accessible, holding informal office hours after every lecture in the Free Speech Cafe (where he had an uncanny talent for finding a free table). And he clearly relished discussing all kinds of ideas with students and GSIs alike. But he also knew when to step back: in every aspect of his teaching he tried to create an atmosphere of intellectual freedom.” A student double-majoring in English and Classical Civilizations remembered taking a course taught by Anthony about ancient religions. She described his enthusiasm for the pursuit of knowledge as what made the discipline more approachable for students. “His passion for classics really came through in a strong way. I know a lot of students who changed their major to classics after taking his class.” Anthony regularly taught freshman seminars as an overload. In 2005 he was cited as one of UC Berkeley’s “unsung heroes” in a survey of exceptionally helpful undergraduate instructors.

 

Anthony’s concern and compassion for students, so evident from the beginning of his career at King’s College, extended here to the Deans’ offices in the College of Letters and Science. As a long-standing Assistant Dean, Anthony had a special gift for listening to troubled students in what was often a fraught situation for them. Those whom he advised deeply appreciated his obvious interest in their academic lives and personal welfare. For him, the student always came before the rule; his philosophy was to find a way to make the best happen. His contributions to these peer discussions were always insightful and generous, as well as often witty.

 

Anthony was an active supporter of the Crowden Music Center and the Crowden School in Berkeley, where he served as a member of the Board of Trustees and several committees. His outreach work included two much-visited classical websites - GreekMyth.org and GreekReligion.org. In all that he did, both inside and outside the campus, he was a force for good - calm, wise and immensely cultivated. During his last illness, which he faced with extraordinary fortitude and wry humor, he relished talking about his experience as a lecturer on a recent CalAlumni tour of Greece and the Aegean. Anthony looked forward to resuming work as Assistant Dean and to the resumption of  his writing and the teaching of his popular courses. We only wish that this opportunity had been vouchsafed to him.

 

Anthony is survived by his wife Linda A. Colman and their two children, Tanya and Alexander.

 

Robert Knapp

Tony Long