All Scholars
GEER, Russell Mortimer
- Date of Birth: December 21, 1894
- Born City: Colchester
- Born State/Country: CT
- Parents: Curtis Manning, a Congregationalist minister & professor at Hartford Theological Seminary, & Mary Louise Gillette G.
- Date of Death: May 24, 1984
- Death City: Roanoke
- Death State/Country: VA
- Married: Edith Laura Guilmartin, 5 June 1918; Elisabeth Wyman, 1 Sept. 1923.
- Education:
A.B. Williams Coll., 1916; A.M. Harvard, 1917; Ph.D., 1926.
- Dissertation:
“Quatenus Vita Vergiliana Aelio Donato attributa re vera Suetonio Tranquillo debeatur quaeritur” (Harvard, 1926).
- Professional Experience:
Instr. Gk. & Lat. Williams Coll., 1919-21; instr. Lat. Amherst, 1923-5; instr. to assoc. prof. Gk. & Lat. Brown, 1925-37; prof, class, langs. Tulane, 1937-9; W.R. Irby prof, class, langs., 1939-61; head dept. class, langs. Tulane, 1937-61; actng. dean coll. arts & sci., 1954-5; vis. prof. class. langs., Johns Hopkins, 1961-3; New England ed. CJ 1930-7; assoc. ed. CJ, 1937-46; pres. So. Sect. CAMWS, 1949-51; CAMWS, 1952-3.
- Publications:
“Non-Suetonian Passages in the Life of Vergil Formerly Ascribed to Donatus,” TAPA 57 (1926) 107-15; “On the Theories of Dream Interpretation in Artemiodorus,” CJ 22 (1926-7) 663-70; “Pharmaceutical Latin,” CJ 25 (1929-30) 323-6; “Notes on the Early Life of Nero,” TAPA 62 (1931) 57-67; “Terentianus Maurus, Metrical Metrician,” CJ 29 (1933-4) 33-40; “Suetonius Augustus II.2,” AJP 55 (1934) 337-9; Roman Civilization (Providence, RI, 1936); “Plutarch and Appian on Tiberius Gracchus,” Studies Rand, 105-12; “Ti. Sempronius Gracchus and T. Veturius Gracchus Sempronianus,” AJP 60 (1939) 466-7; “Reform or Revolution,” CO 17 (1939-40) 53-4; Classical Civilization: Rome (vol. 2 of Classical Civilization; vol. 1 by H. N. Couch) (New York, 1941); Diodorus Siculus (trans.), LCL, vol. 9 (Books 18 & 19.1-65) (Cambridge & London, 1947); vol. 10 (Books 19.66-110 & 20) (1954); vol. 12, index (1967); Epicurus. Letters, Principal Doctrines, and Vatican Sayings (trans.) (Indianapolis, 1964); Titus Lucretius Cams On Nature (trans.) (Indianapolis, 1965); General Index, Livy, vol. 14, LCL (Cambridge & London, 1967).
- Notes:
While Russell Geer enjoyed a considerable reputation in the United States as a student of Greek and Roman historiography, he devoted much of his time and energy to undergraduate education and to the problems and issues of university governance. An outstanding lecturer, he brought the same teacher's instinct to his writing. His textbook on Roman civilization, which is a model of clarity and concision, was a standard in its field for many years, ultimately reaching its sixth printing. In the mid-1950s he was a leader, both as a faculty member and as acting dean, in a fight to de-emphasize athletics which resulted finally in Tulane's departure from the Southeastern Conference.
- Sources:
Personal knowledge.
Photo credit: Tulane University Archives.
- Author: Joe Park Poe