Donald Kagan ’55 AM

Donald Kagan ’55 AM, of McLean, Va.; Aug. 6. He was a distinguished scholar of Greek history. He taught at Ohio State, Pennsylvania State University, and Cornell before joining the Yale faculty in 1969. From his first years at Yale he was heralded as a dynamic and influential teacher. For his distinction in the classroom he received the Phi Beta Kappa DeVane Medal for teaching and scholarship in 1975 and, 20 years later, the Byrnes/Sewall Teaching Prize, which is awarded to the teacher who “has given the most time, energy, and effective effort to educating undergraduates.” While at Cornell, he won two prestigious teaching awards as well. He was often consulted by political figures and he promoted his views on politics in national articles and columns. With his son, he wrote While America Sleeps, a book comparing American foreign policy of the 1990s to that of the United Kingdom following World War I. During his tenure at Yale, he was twice chair of the classics department and was dean of the college from 1989 to 1992. In 2005 he was invited to give the National Endowment for the Humanities Jefferson lecture, the highest honor the federal government confers for distinguished intellectual achievement. For his body of work he was awarded the National Medal for the Humanities, presented by President George W. Bush in 2002. He is survived by two sons and their spouses and two grandchildren.