Longtime classics professor
Bernice Fox dies at age 92
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Bernice Fox in
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Bernice Lee Fox,
92, emerita professor of classics, died Dec. 11, 2003, at Community
Medical Center in Monmouth, where she had been a resident of the long-term
care facility for more than a year.
Born Feb. 19, 1911, in Ashland, Ky., Fox
graduated magna cum laude from Kentucky Wesleyan College in 1932 and
earned her master's degree from the University of Kentucky in 1934. She
was a graduate assistant in English at Ohio State University from 1936 to
1941.
Prior to joining the Monmouth faculty in
1947, she worked as a research director and a literary revisionist. She
was named chairman of the Monmouth classics department in 1970 and was
elevated to full professor in 1977. She retired in 1981, having served 34
years on the faculty.
Fox was awarded an honorary degree by
Monmouth College in 1991, which in 1985 established an annual lecture in
her name. Dedicated to preserving the classics and making them applicable
to the modern age, she was active in the Illinois Classical Conference and
promoted the Illinois State Latin Tournament. She translated several
popular stories into Latin, including the children's classic, "Charlotte's
Web," published by Harper and Row in 1991.
During her long career at Monmouth, Fox
never once took a sabbatical, although she traveled frequently to Europe
during summers, usually accompanied by two or more of her students. She
will be remembered for her zeal for teaching and her unconventional
teaching methods. "I teach on top of my desk," she once said. "I don't put
on a dance up there; I sit up there while I teach. It keeps the desk form
separating me from the students."
Advanced classes in Latin and Greek were
taught for many years in the basement recreation room of her home, located
less than a block from campus. Her lectures often employed slides from her
travels and even erotic cartoons from such publications as Playboy
magazine. She had a razor-sharp wit. When a well-meaning alumnus once
remarked that she hadn't changed a bit since he last saw her, she
responded, "I HOPE I didn't look this old 15 years ago!"
Miss Fox donated her body to science and
requested no memorial service or memorial fund.
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Barry McNamara, Associate Director of College Communications
Phone: 309-457-2117
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