Peter S. Derow *70

Peter S. Derow, Hody fellow and tutor in ancient history at Wadham College of Oxford University, died Dec. 9, 2006, of a heart attack. He was 62.

An expert on ancient Rome, Derow was a scholar who gave the highest priority to, and received the greatest pleasure from, teaching undergraduates. Deploring many tendencies of modern higher education, especially the elevation of research over teaching, he was committed to an older ideal of the university.

His research centered on the Greek world and Rome, when Rome was rising to world dominance. Among his writings, he contributed to The Cambridge Ancient History and Blackwell’s A Companion to the Hellenistic World, and with R.S. Bagnall edited and translated a valuable collection of sources, The Hellenistic Period: Historical Sources in Translation.

Born in Newport, R.I., Derow first arrived at Wadham College in 1965 (after Amherst College), to take a second bachelor’s in classics. Returning to the United States, he earned a Ph.D. in classics from Princeton, then taught at the University of Toronto, and, in 1977, joined the faculty at Wadham College.

He was married three times, and all three women attended his funeral. From his first marriage, he had two daughters and one son.