LINGUIST List 18.619
Mon Feb 26 2007
All: Obituary: H. Allan Gleason Jr. 1917-2007
Editor for this issue: Ann Sawyer
<sawyerlinguistlist.org>
Directory
1. William
Forrest,
Obituary: H. Allan Gleason Jr. 1917-2007
Message 1: Obituary: H. Allan Gleason Jr. 1917-2007
Date: 24-Jan-2007
From: William Forrest <lingdeptchass.utoronto.ca>
Subject: Obituary: H. Allan Gleason Jr. 1917-2007
H. Allan Gleason Jr.April 18, 1917 – January 13, 2007
It is with regret that the Department of Linguistics at the University ofToronto announces that Professor Emeritus Henry Alan Gleason passed away onJanuary 13, at the age of 89. He was a major figure in American linguisticsin the last half of the past century. He is survived by his wife of over 65years, Frances Everett, son and daughter-in-law Henry and Jan Gleason, and adaughter Martha, and many other loving family members. A memorial servicewill be held in El Paso Texas on January 25.
Henry Allan Gleason, Jr., came to the University of Toronto in 1967 as aProfessor on the graduate faculty of the Department of English and in thenewly-formed Centre for Linguistic Studies. He had previously been avisiting professor in India for two years, and before that he was aProfessor of Linguistics at the Hartford Seminary Foundation where he alsoreceived his doctorate. He was known as a captivating lecturer and teacher,and an amazing storyteller. His international reputation rested largely onhis Introduction to Descriptive Linguistics, published by Holt, Rinehart andWinston in 1955 and revised in 1965. That book was the first introductorytextbook to gain general acceptance, and for some twenty-five years itprovided the rudiments of linguistic analysis. One could argue that thetextbook defined the field, distinguishing it in content and methodologyfrom the disciplines in which linguists of that time were located:anthropology, rhetoric, grammar, language teaching, and translation.Accompanying the textbook was his Workbook in Descriptive Linguistics, alsopublished by HRW in 1955 and revised in 1967. The exercises contained in theworkbook provided practice exercises for students based on data from manylanguages from all parts of the world, and provided a paradigm for teachingthe discipline that exists to this day. At the University of Toronto,Professor Gleason taught a graduate seminar called Structures of English forliterature students and a number of courses in the Linguistics department,from the introductory course to specialist courses in Hindi analysis.Professor Gleason was also a lay pastor who had served as a missionary inhis younger days as far afield as Appalachia and Punjab. One of his hobbieswas church history, and he spent many weekends while he lived in Toronto(and everywhere else he lived) prowling the countryside seeking the folkhistory of obscure denominations. He retired at age 65 in 1982.
Linguistic Field(s):
Not Applicable
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