North American Scholar

READ, William Merritt

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  • Date of Birth: 1901-06-24
  • Born City: Dupont
  • Born State/Country: IN
  • Parents: Parley Garfield, a home renovator, & Ella Josephine Smith R.
  • Date of Death: 1984-04-20
  • Death City: Seattle
  • Death State/Country: WA
  • Married: Arietta Otis, 19 Dec. 1924; Betty Jorgensen DeLacy, 30 Apr. 1948.
  • Education:

    B.A. DePauw U, 1923; M.A. U. Michigan, 1924; Ph.D., 1927.
  • Dissertation:

    "A Collation of Codex Evangelium 538" (Michigan, 1927).
  • Professional Experience:

    Instr. class. Western Reserve, 1926-7; instr. to prof, class. U. Washington, 1927-72; dir. U. Washington Press, 1943-63; pres. CAPN, 1928; Ford Found, grant, 1966-70.
  • Publications:

    Michigan Manuscript 18 of the Gospels (Seattle, 1942); A Guide to Hans H. Oerberg, Lingua Latina Secundum Naturae Rationem Explicata vol. 1 (Copenhagen, 1965), vol. 2 (Copenhagen, 1965); A Manual for Teachers of Hans H. Oerberg, Lingua Latina Secundum Naturae Rationem Explicata 2 vols. (Copenhagen, 1966); "Aims and Objectives of the Latin Program," Foreign Language Annals (May 1975).
  • Notes:

    William Merritt Read was well known in the Pacific Northwest for the promotion of Latin teaching and study in the secondary schools. From 1966 to 1970 he was recipient of a Ford Foundation Language Grant to assist him in the promotion of Latin teaching in the secondary schools. Read was the author of pedagogical articles in several professional journals, but is most closely associated with the promulgation in this country of the "Nature Method" of teaching Latin.
  • Sources:

    Author Turned Printer (Brooklyn, NY, 1944); WhWh 1978-9: 2669.
  • Author: Daniel P. Harmon