Jan Miel *65

Jan Miel, professor emeritus of Romance languages at Wesleyan University, died Oct. 6, 2015, after a long illness. He was 84.

Miel graduated from Harvard in 1952 and served in the Army from 1952 to 1954. He earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Romance languages and literature in 1959 and 1965, respectively, from Princeton. He taught at Goucher College and MIT before joining Wesleyan in 1964.

At Wesleyan, he was a professor of Romance languages and in the College of Letters. A scholar of varied interests, Miel was a Sanskrit major at Harvard, studied musicology at Princeton, and then earned his doctorate in French, also at Princeton.

His main published work was Pascal and Theology, and he published many articles on literature and literary criticism. While working in intelligence in the Army, he wrote a grammar of the Sinhalese language.

Miel is survived by his wife, Elizabeth; a son; and two grandchildren. A daughter died in 2010.

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.