Lionel Casson [1914-2009]
Photo courtesy N.Y.U.
Professor Lionel Casson, a non-voting member of the Managing Committee, passed away on July 18 in Manhattan. He was 94. Professor Casson was Professor of Classics at New York University from 1961 to 1979. He represented N.Y.U. on the ASCSA Managing Committee from 1967 until becoming an emeritus member in 1979. Professor Casson received his bachelor’s degree in 1934, his master’s degree in 1936 and his doctorate in 1939, all from New York University, and was hired as an instructor at N.Y.U. In World War II, he served as a Navy officer, interrogating Japanese prisoners of war. In 2005, Professor Casson received the Gold Medal Award for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement from the Archaeological Institute of America for his contributions in teaching, prolific publication, and in bringing the field of maritime archaeology to greater public awareness. The Ancient Mariners, published in 1959, first made the maritime story of the ancient world available to both the scholar and to the non-specialist. Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World, first published in 1971, remains today the most cited book in maritime archaeology of the Mediterranean. Casson further reached a lay audience through his popular educational television show, Sunrise Semester in New York in the 1950s. In the first exploration of the Deep Sea using robots in 1989 with the “Jason Project” that reached about 225,000 school children, Casson participated in the training program for teachers in both the USA and Canada. He wrote 23 books on Greek and Latin literature and the maritime history of the ancient Western world. He is survived by his wife of 63 years, the former Julia Michelman, and two daughters, Andrea and Gail Casson, and two grandchildren. New York Times obituary: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/25/nyregion/25casson.html