All Scholars

Herbert Couch, for many years a mainstay of the Brown Classics Department, enthusiastically instilled an appreciation of Greek culture in a large number of students. He did this both through writings that developed from his experience in the classroom and through the courses hemselves. He was best known for Classics 62, “Greek Tragedy,” which by the late 1950s had become one of the most popular among Brown undergraduates. A gentle and reserved man, Couch was active on important faculty committees as well as a confidante of President Keeney at the time he was transforming Brown into an internationally respected research university. Along with his colleague John Rowe Workman, Couch inaugurated the famous Latin Carol Service in 1948. At the service, held in early December, the audience sang carols, the faculty and Brown's president presented seasonal readings, and the master of ceremonies, often Couch himself, presided—entirely in Latin. The Carol Service not only became the herald of Christmas to the university community, but attracted residents from throughout Providence and beyond who filled Brown's largest hall to overflowing.