Edward W. Bodnar *58

Edward Bodnar, professor emeritus of classics at Georgetown University, died Nov. 29, 2011. He was 91.

A priest for 59 years, he graduated from St. Louis University with a bachelor’s degree in 1944, and with a master’s degree in 1946. In 1958, he earned a Ph.D. in classics from Princeton. He taught in Georgetown’s classics department from 1967 until he retired in 1991.

Bodnar had been a mentor for many students and faculty, and remained a presence within the classics department and the Catholic community after his retirement.

According to Associate Professor Catherine Keesling, Bodnar played an integral role in the development of the classics program. She said, “For years, he was the classics department.” Annually, the Georgetown classics department has presented the Bodnar Lecture featuring a renowned classics scholar, which continued after his passing.

In an email announcing Bodnar’s death, Georgetown’s Provost James O’Donnell wrote that Bodnar “will be remembered by many, including a provost for whom he has been his ‘oldest’ Georgetown friend, dating from our meeting in Woodrow Wilson’s [Washington] living room 35 years ago.”

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.