• Date of Birth: November 18, 1921
  • Born City: Chicago
  • Born State/Country: IL
  • Parents: William Patrick & Margaret Lomasney H.
  • Date of Death: February 10, 2015
  • Death City: University City
  • Death State/Country: MO
  • Married: Margaret Frances Lambin, 28 December 1946
  • Education:

    B.A. Loyola U. (Chicago), 1946; M.A. Harvard, 1949; Ph.D., 1954.

  • Dissertation:

    "Ephorus in Plutarch's Lives. A Source Problem” (Harvard, 1954; see HSCP 63 (1958) 510-13)

  • Professional Experience:

    U.S. Army Air Force, 1942-5; Instr. classics, Marquette U., 1948-52; insert. Indiana U., 1952-4; master, St., Paul's School (Concord, NH), 1954-5; asst. prof. Bowdoin Coll., 1955-62; asso. prof. to prof. Washington U. (St. Louis) 1962-92; chair dept., 1982-92; Wilbur Fellow, Brooklyn Museum, 1967; reader, Advanced Placement Latin, 1962-8; chief reader, 1979-73; memo. Latin Test Committee, College Entrance Exam Bd., 1968-73; referee, ACLS, 1990-4; editorial bd., IJCT, 1993-1002; curator, John Max Wolfing Coin Collection, 1966-94.

  • Publications:

    Hugh of Saint Victor: Soliloquy on the Earnest Money of the Soul (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1956); “The Identity of Plutarch's Lost Scipio,” AJP 78 (1957) 83-88; “The Classical World in Recent Fiction,” CJ 53 (1958) 242-52; “Terracotta Figurines at Bowdoin College,” CJ 55 (1959) 98-111; “A Roman Cinerary Urn at Bowdoin College,” AJA 64 (1960) 76-8; “The Theseus Theme: Some Recent Versions,” CJ 55 (1960) 175-85; “Greek and Latin Inscriptions at Bowdoin,”AJA 66 (1962) 381-7; Ancient Art in Bowdoin College. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Warren and Other Collections (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1964). REVS.: AJA LXIX 1965 274 Hill | CR XV 1965 236 Cook | AntJ XLV 1965 274 Strong | JHS LXXXVI 1966 287 Sparkes; “Three Ptolemaic Inscriptions in the Wilbour Collection of the Brooklyn Museum,” AJA 71 (1967) 189; Greek and Latin Inscriptions in the Brooklyn Museum, Wilnour Monographs IV (Brooklyn: The Brooklyn Museum, 1972). REVS.: Erasmus XXIV 1972 749-751 Leclant | CE XLVI 1971 412-413 Bingen | BO XXX 1973 275 Jonkers | CW LXVII 1973 181 Sherk | WS N.F. VII 1973 276 Dobesch | JNES XXXIII 1974 425-426 Philips | JARCE IX 1971-1972 159-160 Oliver | OLZ LXX 1975 15-18 Koerner | Mnemosyne XXVIII 1975 223-224 Pleket | Orientalia XLIII 1974 146 des Places ; CR XXVI 1976 109-110 Griffiths ; Aegyptus LVI 1976 353-355 Geraci; Ancient Collections in Washington University (ed. with Sarantis Symeonoglou) (St. Louis: Washington University, 1973);  “Greek and Roman Coins from Asia Minor in Washington University, II,” in Proceedings of the Xth International Congress of Classical Archaeology, Ankara-Izmir 23-30.IX.1973, ed. E. Akurgal (Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu, 1978) 605-10; Greek Coins in the Wulfing Collection of  Washington University St. Louis: Washington University, 1979); Maximum Effort: The B-29s against Japan: In Memoriam Omnium Mortuorum ex Aerio Bello in Coelo et Terra Japoniae 15 VI 1944-14 VII 1945 (Manhattan, KS: Sunflower Press, 1983); “The Inscription as an Art Form in the Mixed Genre of the Grave Stele: An Example in New York,” in Studies Presented to Sterling Dow on His Eightieth Birthday, ed.  K.J. Rigsby, GRBS Supplement V (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1984) 143-8;  The John Max Wulfing Collection in Washington University. Roman Republican Coins, assisted by Keith Candiotti, Ancient Coins in North America Collections VII (New York: The American Numismatic Society, 1987). REVS.: NNB XXXVII 1988 254 Albert | NC CXLIX 1989 249-250 Crawford | CW LXXXIII 1989-1990 532 Boren | Gnomon LXII 1990 566-567 Schulzki | GNS XL 1990 32 Perret; The John Max Wulfing Collection in Washington University. 3, Roman Imperial Coins, Augustus to Hadrian and Antonine Selections, 31 BC-AD 180 (Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci, 1996). REVS.: Prudentia 1997 29 (2) : 87-91 Christopher T. H. R. Ehrhardt | Scholia 1997 6: 149-151 Anne Gosling | CR 1998 N. S. 48 (2): 559 J. H. C. Williams | Eirene 1997 33: 226-227 Karel Kurz | Latomus 1999 58 (3): 741 Hubert Zehnacker | Hermathena 1999 N° 167: 105-106 Stanley Ireland; Maximum Effort: The B-29s against Japan (Manhattan, KS: Sunflower University Press, 1983

     

  • Notes:

    Kevin Herbert was chiefly known for his work with ancient coins.  His teaching career spanned over 60 years and for 25 years he curated one of America’s great collections of ancient coins.

    When his undergraduate studies at Loyola of Chicago were interrupted by the war, he enlisted in the Army Air Force, serving as a tail gunner on a B-29 in the Pacific Theater. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross for “heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in an aerial flight” and eleven other air medals. He became a champion of the B-29, writing an authoritative history of the aircraft and its use in the war.

    He was chiefly interested in the insights into the history and daily life of the Greeks and Romans revealed by their coinage.  While at Bowdoin he published an account of the college’s holdings in ancient art. Thanks to a grant from the Wilnour Foundation he published an account of inscriptions in the Brooklyn Museum and a number of descriptions of the holdings of the Wulfing Collection at Washington University.  

    At Washington he taught a wide variety of courses in ancient history, warfare, art, and religion, frequently drawing on his wide travels in the ancient world and leading students on tours of ancient sites. He was a familiar figure on campus decked out in the distinctive scarlet baseball cap of his beloved St. Louis Cardinals. He had played baseball avidly as a boy in Chicago and regularly attended major league games with either one uncle who was a devoted White Sox fan or another who was equally loyal to the Cubs. Throughout his career at Washington he regularly attended Sunday afternoon games at Busch stadium with his wife Margaret.  

  • Sources:

    WhAm 63 (2009) 2167, St. Louis Post-Dispatch (15 February 2015); Thomas G. Palaima, "War Stories Told, Untold, and Retold from Troy to Tinian to Fort Campbell," Arion 3rd ser. 23,3 (Winter 2016) 1-33.

  • Author: Ward W. Briggs, Jr.