The passing of Ross Scaife last week took me completely by surprise and it's taken me a while to figure out how best to react to it, outside of expressing my deepest sympathies to his family and friends. Dr. Scaife was one of the many folks who I knew completely due to their online presence -- this is one of the possibly strange effects of the Classics 'subculture' that has grown on the Internet over the past decade and a half. At the same time, Dr. Scaife was one of the truly great presences in that subculture ... of the many, many, many Classicists in the world, he was one of the few who ventured onto the Internet and was one of the very few who very early on realized its potential for Classical Studies and scholarly communication. He didn't need my constant railing in various fora to 'get it'; he got it without any prodding from me. And more than just talking the talk, as might have been so easy for someone in a busy academic milieu, he walked the walk. Many of his (in collaboration with others) projects on the Internet have been around for so long that they seem to have always been there, for example:
Diotima: Materials for the Study of Women and Gender in the Ancient World ... a pioneering site, not just in Classics, but in Humanities in general ...
Anahita-l ... a discussion group set up to complement the above (now at Yahoo, but some of the most interesting discussions from its early days are still available in the UKy listserv archives)
Suda Online ... a model for scholarly collaboration
Neo-Latin Colloquia ... arguing against the 'dead language' claim
... eventually most of Dr. Scaife's Online projects became subsumed under the rubric of the Stoa Consortium, again, a model for online scholarly collaboration.
On his 'cv' page at UKy, there is an interesting excerpt from Tennyson's Ulysses:
Dr. Scaife will definitely be missed.
Further reading:
Dot Porter's obituary of Dr. Scaife at the Stoa (with an opportunity to comment)
Obituary in the Free-Lance Star
Obituary in the Kentucky Kernel
Diotima: Materials for the Study of Women and Gender in the Ancient World ... a pioneering site, not just in Classics, but in Humanities in general ...
Anahita-l ... a discussion group set up to complement the above (now at Yahoo, but some of the most interesting discussions from its early days are still available in the UKy listserv archives)
Suda Online ... a model for scholarly collaboration
Neo-Latin Colloquia ... arguing against the 'dead language' claim
... eventually most of Dr. Scaife's Online projects became subsumed under the rubric of the Stoa Consortium, again, a model for online scholarly collaboration.
On his 'cv' page at UKy, there is an interesting excerpt from Tennyson's Ulysses:
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Dr. Scaife will definitely be missed.
Further reading:
Dot Porter's obituary of Dr. Scaife at the Stoa (with an opportunity to comment)
Obituary in the Free-Lance Star
Obituary in the Kentucky Kernel