Classics R. Ross Holloway '56: In Memorium

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Ross Holloway, a classics major, graduated from Amherst College in 1956, not only summa cum laude but first in his class. At Amherst, along with his studies in Greek and Latin, Ross developed a serious interest in Greek and Roman art. He went on to study archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received an MA in 1957, then moved to Princeton University, completing a PhD in the history of art in 1960 with a dissertation on bronze coins minted in Greek territories. It was during this time that Ross first took part in an excavation, at Morgantina in Sicily. After receiving his PhD, he lived for two years in Rome, at the American Academy, where he was a Rome Prize scholar. He taught for a year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, then in 1964 joined the Classics Department at Brown University, where he remained until his retirement in 2006. At Brown, in 1978, Ross and Rolf Winkes founded a center which became the Center for Old World Archaeology and Art, now renamed the Joukousky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World.

Ross is best known for his pathbreaking work in the Bronze Age history of Italy and Sicily, including the island of Ustica, where, in excavations together with a former student, Susan Lukesh, he uncovered a Middle Bronze Age town with a unique example of a stone figure from that period. His many publications include books intended to reach out to a broad audience, and bold studies that offer new interpretations of familiar material. His achievement was recognized in honorary memberships bestowed by several international archaeological societies, by honorary lectureships, by the publication of two Festschrifts in his honor, and by honorary degrees, including one awarded by Amherst College in 1976. He received the Archaeological Institute of America's highest honor, the Gold Medal for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement, in 1995. 

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Along with his remarkable accomplishments as a scholar, Ross was always attentive to the people around him, and he never forgot his days at Amherst College. No doubt due to his influence, his granddaughters, Augusta Hollers '19 and Eleanor Hollers '21 are also Amherst graduates. Ross spoke fondly, most of all, about the time he spent in the Classics Department in its rooms in Grosvenor House, which in his years at Amherst included seminar rooms on both sides of the entrance to the building. When Ross retired from Brown University, he donated a large portion of his library to the department along with funds to enable the re-establishment of a seminar room, so that Greek and Latin classes can now, as in his day, meet in Grosvenor House. He also donated a portrait that greets with his beneficent gaze all those who enter the room.

~Rebecca Sinos