Reynold Burrows, retired professor of classics at Sweet Briar College, died peacefully Nov. 13, 2016, at age 95.
During World War II, Burrows was selected for intensive military training in language. As a Japanese translator and interpreter, he was among the first to enter Japan at the war’s end. He earned a bachelor’s degree in classics from Harvard in 1946, a master’s degree in Latin and Greek from Michigan in 1949, and a Ph.D. in classics from Princeton in 1956.
Burrows then taught classics at Miami, Colorado, and San Francisco State before joining Sweet Briar in 1962, where he was department chair when he retired in 1983. In addition to Latin, Greek, and classical history, he taught French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Sanskrit.
While at Sweet Briar and after, Burrows was a visiting professor in Athens, as well as a visiting lecturer at Harvard, Brown, Oxford, and other colleges and universities in Europe. According to his sons, he was a demanding teacher but a generous grader and “a tender-hearted soul.” He was a serious musician and a board member of the Newport Music Festival.
Burrows was predeceased by his wife of 61 years, Diane, in 2013. He is survived by two sons, including Adam ’75, a Princeton astrophysics professor.
Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.