Concise Encyclopedia of Tufts History
Sauer, Anne
Branco, Jessica
Bennett, John
Crowley, Zachary
2000
William Frank Wyatt Prize, 1962
| The William Frank Wyatt Prize, established in 1962 for excellence in the translation of Greek or Latin, is awarded by the Department of Classics to the student who best exemplifies Professor Wyatt's sound scholarship and catholicity of interest. Professor Wyatt was a teacher of Greek at Tufts from 1914 until his death in 1961, and chairman of the classics department from its establishment in 1940 to 1952. | |
William Frank Wyatt was born in Carrollton, Kentucky. He graduated from Centre College in 1904, taught school, and became instructor of Latin at Transylvania College for four years. From 1910 to 1915 he studied for a doctorate at Harvard and in 1912 and 1913 held a European fellowship. In 1914, he joined Tufts as an Instructor of Greek. In 1918, he became assistant professor, and in 1924, professor. He also taught courses in Greek history, sculpture, and mythology, and gave a New Testament course at the Crane School of Religion. While he was chairman of the Greek Department, the professorship of Latin became vacant and both departments were merged into the Department of Classics. The only interruption of his service to Tufts occurred when he was in charge of the YMCA headquarters at Turin in Italy during World War I. | |
He married a classicist, Natalie Gifford, after the age of 50 and became emeritus professor of Greek in 1952. He continued to teach as a lecturer in Classics for another four years. He lived on Edison Avenue in Medford until his death on July 28, 1961. | |
Source: BTU[Arts and Sciences/Engineering]; 100H | |
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