George Huxley Obituary, Death – The news of George Huxley’s death has left all of us feeling bereaved. We had many fruitful collaborations with him at Trinity, and most recently, we presented a Huxley prize in his honor to the finest MPhil thesis each year. He was a fantastic friend of Classics in Ireland and beyond, and we had many fruitful partnerships with him at Trinity.
Mark Humphries, a TCD Classics program graduate, paid a heartfelt tribute to the professor on his Facebook page this morning, and we’d like to share it with you here with Mark’s permission:
‘The death of George Huxley at the age of 90 was brought to my attention by an Irish colleague, and I wish to send my heartfelt condolences.’ Amid his time as a Greek professor in Belfast during turbulent times, he became active in many sorts of social activity. When the self-righteous, self-satisfied, unenlightened city fathers wanted to purge “the Sabbath” of any sort of joy, he was most famous for liberating playgrounds for the city’s children.
He also helped form the Hibernian Hellenists, together with Gerry Watson (Maynooth), which fostered cross-border communication and aided As a Hellenist, he viewed Greek culture in its fullest sense, covering everything from the ancient through the Byzantine periods. He was my professor at Trinity College Dublin for the academic year 1989-1990. His courses on Archaic and Classical Greece were enhanced by situating Greek history within a broader Near Eastern context.
Furthermore, he painstakingly handwrote all of the handouts (and drawing artefacts on the blackboard). After that, while studying on my Master of Letters, I had the distinct privilege of sitting in on his Byzantium lectures. It was an honor to have him as a fellow honorary employee at Maynooth University from 1998 to 2007. He gave the appearance of being stern and menacing, yet he also had a mischievous side (along with a keen interest in railways!). Recently, he has taken a stand against the Brexit movement’s isolationist tendencies in favor of greater pan-European understanding, and at the age of 86, he became an Irish citizen. May he finally find peace and repose.