The award for 2015 will be presented to Dr. John McKesson Camp II, Director of the Athenian Agora Excavations, at the next meeting of the Alumni/ae Association, which will be in New Orleans in January 2015, and the recipient's name will be inscribed on a plaque on display in the ASCSA in Athens.
John has been a bright presence at the School since his undergraduate days. He was a member of the 1965 summer session directed by William P. Donovan, and joined the Agora excavations two years later, under T. Leslie Shear, Jr. He became Assistant Director of the Agora Excavations in 1973, was the School’s Mellon Professor of Archaeology (1985-1996), and became the Director of excavations at the Athenian Agora in 1994. Since 1996, he has taught at Randolph-Macon College in Ashville, Virginia as the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Professor of Classics.
John’s archaeological publications are many and impressive; they show an amazing breadth of knowledge and continue to benefit a myriad of scholars who have come to rely on his diligent research, keen observations and reasoned conclusions.
His more than four decades of service to the School include annual instruction of Regular and Summer Session Members, with whom he generously shares his insights on sites and museum collections throughout Greece and Turkey, but especially in Attica and at the Agora. Many of us cannot think about the Hephaisteion without having vivid memories of John’s lectures there. Perhaps his greatest legacy is introducing hundreds of students to archaeological practices by teaching them to dig at the Agora — and to uphold the highest standards of the profession.
John lecturing to Summer Session students
John Camp is a generous collaborator and a master teacher; we are fortunate to know him as a vital part of the School’s heart and soul. As one of his nominators put it, “Member, advisor, professor, archaeologist, diplomat, fundraiser, and marketing department: what more could anyone do?”
The Aristeia Award, now in its fifth year, was created to honor those who have done the most over the years to support the School's mission in teaching, research, archaeological exploration, and/or publication. John has made outstanding contributions in all of these areas. He stands alongside our previous four recipients, Alan Boegehold, Jim McCredie, Ron Stroud and Nancy Bookidis as an exemplary representative of the ideals of pedagogy, service and scholarship.
