All Scholars

KOVACH, Edith Marie Amalia

  • Edith Marie Amalia Kovach; U. of Detroit Mercy Yearbook 1967
  • Date of Birth: March 29, 1921
  • Born City: New York
  • Born State/Country: NY
  • Parents: Eugene John & Hortense Marie Telmany K.
  • Date of Death: July 01, 2009
  • Death City: Bloomfield Hills
  • Death State/Country: MI
  • Education:

    A.B. Wayne State University, 1942; M.Ed., 1942; M.A. (Latin), University of Michigan, 1945; Ph.D. (Classical Studies), 1950.
  • Dissertation:

    "A Study of the Manuscripts of the Florilegium of the Letters of Symmachus" (Michigan, 1950).
  • Professional Experience:

    Teacher & head of foreign language departments, Chadsey High School,  Central High School, Mumford High School, Detroit Public School System, 1942 -65; assoc. prof. classical languages, University of Detroit Mercy, 1965-72; prof.  classics & education, 1972; William T. Semple Scholar, AAR, 1948; President's Award for Teaching Excellence, 1984; assoc. ed. "The Clearing House," a column in CO, 1972-88;  assoc. ed., CO, from 1972; ACL Meritus/Merita Award, 2004.
  • Publications:

    “The Fountain of Bandusia,” (trans.) CO 22 (1945) 56; “Horace, Odes III, 30,” (trans.) CO 23 (1946) 4; “Serit Arbores Yet Again,” CJ 42 (1946) 40–1; “An Experiment in Third and Fourth Year Latin,” CO 30 (1953) 77; “A Report on the Seventh Annual Latin Institute,” CO 32 (1954) 4-6; First Book, Latin for Americans Progress Tests 1 with Answer Key, with B. L. Ullman and A. W. Smalley, (New York: Macmillan, 1956; Glencoe, IL: McGraw-Hill, 1990). “Some Desirable Audiovisual Aids,” CO 33 (1956) 57-8; “Admirandi, Laudandi, Imitandi,” CO 44 (1966) 40-4; “Airlie House Follow-up Committee 1: On the Role and Relevance of the Classics,” CW 59 (1966) 185–6; “Are You Sure You Can Read This?,” CO 50 (1972) 4;  “Unisex: A Latin Word Game,” CO 61 (1983) 51;  “Quis Est Frater Aurigae,” CO 61 (1984) 135,148; “Qui Docet, Discit,” CO 44 (1995) 46-7; “Dulce Est Desipere in Loco,” CO 73 (1996) 88; “Obiter Lecta II,”  CO 78 (2001) 112-13.
  • Notes:

    Dr. Kovach was continuously involved in classical pedagogy throughout her entire career. After two decades with the Detroit Public School system, she joined the faculty at the Jesuit University of Detroit Mercy in 1965 and at one point chaired its Classical Studies Department. She was nationally recognized for developing methods to teach Latin and Greek at both the high school and college levels. Taking advantage of what was then new audio-visual technology she designed drill tapes such as "Reading Dactylic Hexameter," a recording she made using selections from the Aeneid  to teach scansion mentioned in CO 44 (April, 1967) 94. Beginning in 1949 she participated in almost all of the American Classical League's summer institutes for several decades. In 1967 she was part of the Michigan Classical Spring, a statewide, yearlong celebration of classical studies in Michigan headed by Dr. Jacob E. Nyenhuis (b. 1935) of Hope College in Holland, MI. In 1973 she helped host the Sixty-Ninth Annual Meeting of CAMWS when the group met in Detroit (April 12-14) and in the late 1980s she became one of the consultants to the Board of the National Latin Exam. She was instrumental in starting the Detroit Classical Association in 1957 and in revitalizing the Michigan Classical Conference after World War II. 
  • Sources:

    WhAmWo 13 (1983-1984) 446; Michele Valerie Ronnick, “A Look at the Michigan Classical Spring, 1967: A Highpoint in the History of Classical Studies in the State of Michigan,” in Jack: A Compassionate Compendium: A Tribute to Dr. Jacob E. Nyenhuis, Scholar, Servant, Leader, eds. Donald Luidens and JoHannah Smith (Holland, MI: Van Raalte Press, 2018) 87-95; 

    https://libraries.udmercy.edu/archives/special-collections/index.php?record_id=815&collectionCode=honors_hon;

    https://www.desmondfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Edith-M-A-Kovach-PhD?obId=12333716
  • Author: Michele Valerie Ronnick