All Scholars

LAWALL, Gilbert Westcott

  • Gilbert Westcott Lawall
  • Date of Birth: September 22, 1936
  • Born City: Detroit
  • Born State/Country: MI
  • Parents: Russell Maurice, an AT&T engineer, & Edith Roe Mabe L.
  • Date of Death: August 7, 2025
  • Death City: Andover
  • Death State/Country: NH
  • Married: Sarah “Sally” Nesbit, 1957
  • Education:

    A.B, Oberlin, 1957; Fulbright Fell., 1959-60; Ph.D., Yale, 1961.
  • Dissertation:

    “Theocritus and Greek Bucolic Poetry” (Yale, 1961).
  • Professional Experience:

    Instr. Classics, Yale, 1961-3, 1964-5; jr. fell., CHS, 1963-4; asst. prof., Amherst, 1965-7; asst. prof. to assoc. prof. 1967-72; prof. classics, U. Mass Amherst, 1972-2001; Barlow-Beach Award for Distinguished Service, CANE, 1979; vice-president, CANE, 1972-3l secy-treas., 1980-7; president, ACL, 1976-80.  
  • Publications:

    “Exempla and Theme in Juvenal's Tenth Satire,” TAPA 89 (1958) 25-31; “The Cup, the Rose, and the Winds in Pindar's Seventh Olympian,” RFIC 39 (1961) 33-47; “Simaetha's Incantation. Structure and Imagery,” TAPA 92 (1961) 283-94; “Apollonius' Argonautica. Jason as Anti-Hero,” YCS 19 (1966) 119-69; Theocritus’ Coan Pastorals: A Poetry Book (Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies, 1967); “The Green Cabinet and the Pastoral Design. Theocritus, Euripides, and Tibullus,” Ramus 4 (1975) 87-100; Classics and the Future of Schools: A Program for Action ((Eric Clearinghouse, 1976); “Herodas 6 and 7 Reconsidered,” CP 71 (1976) 165-9; Teaching the Classics: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (Amherst, MA: Classics Dept. U. Mass. Amherst for the American Classical League, 1977); “Seneca's Medea. The Elusive Triumph of Civilization,” in Arktouros. Hellenic Studies Presented to Bernard M. W. Knox on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday, ed. G.W. Bowersock, W. Burkert, M.C.J. Putnam (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1979) 419-26; Colleges and High Schools: A New Latin League, with Richard A. LaFleur (Amherst, MA: NECN Publications, 1979); “Death and Perspective in Seneca’s Troades,” CJ  77 (1982) 244-52; “Virtus and Pietas in Seneca's Hercules Furens,” in Seneca Tragicus. Ramus Essays on Senecan Drama, ed. A.J. Boyle (Berwick, Victoria, Australia: Aureal Publ., 1983) 6-26; Phaedra of Seneca (Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci, 1981; 2nd ed. with Sarah Lawall & Gerda Kunkel, 1984); Pastimes and Ceremonies, with David Tafe (New York: Longman, 1985);  Petronius: Selections from the Satyricon, 3rdrev. ed. (Oak Park, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci, 1988; 3rd ed., 1995); Plautus’ Menaechmi, with Betty Nye Quinn (Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci, 1981); Euripides Hippolytus, ed. & trans. with Sarah Lawall (Bristol, UK: Bristol Classical Press, 1986); Cicero’s Somnium Scipionis: The Dream of Scipio, with Sally Davis (White Plains, NY: Longman, 1988); The Aulularia of Plautus, The Pot of Gold, with Betty Nye Quinn (White Plains, NY: Longmans, 1988); The Romans Speak for Themselves: Books I and II (New York: Longmans, 1989; rev. ed., 1995; Athenaze: An Introduction to Ancient Greek Book I, with Maurice Balme (New York: Oxford U. Press, 1990; 3rd ed. with James Morwood, 2016); Book II (1991); Fabulae Graecae: A Revised Edition of Richie’s Fabulae Faciles, ed. with Stanley Iverson & Allen Wooley (New York: Longman, 1991); Fabulae Romanae: Stories of Famous Romans, rev. & ed. with David Perry (New York: Longman, 1993); Ecce Romani: A Latin Reading Program, chief revision editor with Scottish Classics Group, 3rd ed. (White Plains, NY: Longman, 2nd ed, 1995; 3rd ed., 2000); Books 3-4 rev. ed, (White Plains: Longman, 1990); Teachers Handbook for the Romans Speak for Themselves Books 1 and 2 (New York: Longman, 1989); Love and Betrayal: A Catullus Reader, with Bruce Arnold & Andrew Aronson (New York: Longman, 2000).
  • Notes:

    Gil Lawall was a man of service who had the rare ability of being able to scan the field of Latin and Greek studies as an interconnected entity and to see where it needed to grow or improve in order to thrive.  Gil instinctively knew that from elementary school to graduate programs, the field was united by an almost invisible thread that bound it together.  But he saw the thread and acted upon what he saw.

          In the early 1960s Latin was studied by 7.1% of foreign language students. This was followed by a decline in enrollment. By 1976 that number had sunk to 1.1%, a drop in real numbers from 680,234 to 150,470. Soon thereafter schools began abandoning Latin, often because the number of certified Latin teachers had also declined precipitously.

          So, in 1970, Gil and Ed Phinney developed the Teaching Latin and Classical Humanities program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst that continues to this day the work they began.  When Gil saw that Greek was on the wane due, in part, to stuffy textbooks, he collaborated with Maurice Balme to bring Athenaze to the United States.  He was also Chief Revision Editor of Ecce Romani. When no census of Massachusetts high schools teaching Latin or Greek existed, he created an annual one, hand stuffing envelopes and tallying the results late at night. Indeed, he rose late and preferred to toil away through the late evening and early A.M. hours.

            Gil was a soft-spoken man with an iron determination.  Despite all of his accomplishments he was extremely self-effacing, even forgoing a celebration of his career upon his retirement. He had hobbies, such as throwing pottery in the studio he built in his house and he was passionate about human rights and wildlife conservation. After retirement he enjoyed walking his beloved Yorkshire terrier around the UMass campus late at night. But above all he lived to serve the field, its students, and its teachers.  It is as impossible to quantify the good he did as it is to count the careers and lives he touched.
  • Sources:

    DAS 6 (2002) 156-7.
  • Author: Kenneth F. Kitchell