Education:
A.B. Cornell, 1919; A.M. Cornell, 1920; Ph.D. Columbia, 1933; Univ. Fell. Cornell, 1919-20.
Dissertation:
“A Study in Ancient Nationalism: The Testimony of Euripides” (Columbia, 1933); printed (Williamsport, PA, 1933).
Professional Experience:
Asst. NY Public Library, 1920-7; instr. to prof, class. NYU, 1927-62, dir. libraries, 1947-62.
Publications:
Latin Fundamentals, with A. G. C. Maitland (New York, 1930); Excavations at Nessana, II Literary Papyri, with Lionel Casson (Princeton, 1950).
Notes:
Ernest Hettich, although he published in the field of papyrology and spent the latter half of his academic career in administration, was first and foremost a gifted Latinist. He boasted a profound knowledge of the language and an instinctive feeling for it. He could take a Latin word or phrase or sentence and, by translating it in manifold ways, from a strictly literal rendering to earthy slang, lay bare unperceived depths of meaning. In poetry he had a keen ear for the connection of sound and meter with sense, whether the blatant comic turns of Plautus or the delicate nuances of Vergil. The beginners' textbook that he co-authored, Latin Fundamentals, was comprehensive, lucid, tightly organized, and, from the very first lesson, used material drawn solely from Roman writings; it was a most demanding book, but those who were put through it emerged fully equipped to read with understanding the most difficult Latin authors.
Sources:
NYU Archives; WhWh 1948-9.