Lucius Rogers Shero PhD (1891 - 1968)

Born 5 Apr 1891 in Smethport, McKean, Pennsylvania, United States

Died 31 May 1968 at age 77 in Swarthmore, Delaware, Pennsylvania, United States

Biography

Son of William Francis Shero and Lucy Sophronia Rogers

Children:

1. Gertrude Caroline (1919–2004) - never married
2. Lucy Adrienne (1920–1990) - TWIN - never married
3. Frances Livia (1920–2005) - TWIN - never married

From Rutgers' Database of Scholars:

EDUCATION

Study at Franklin & Marshall Coll., 1906-7; B.A. Haverford, 1911; M.A. U. Wisconsin, 1912; Ph.D., 1920; B.A. Oxford (New Coll.) (Rhodes Scholar), 1917.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Asso. prof, to prof. Lat. Macalester Coll., 1917-20; Hoffman prof. Gk. St. Stephen's Coll. (Annandale, NY), 1920-8; prof. Gk. Swarthmore, 1928-59; registrar, 1944-8; chmn. div. hum., 1951-4; vis. prof. Stanford, summer, 1931; ann. prof. ASCSA, 1936-7; mng. comm., 1937-40; sec.-treas. APA, 1939-44; pres., 1949-50; mem. Am. Guild of Organists.

DISSERTATION

"The Satirist's Apologia" (Wisconsin, 1919); printed Wisconsin U. Stud. Lang, and Lit. 15 (1922) 148-67

PUBLICATIONS

"The Cena in Roman Satire," CP 18 (1923) 126-43; "Lucilius's Cena Rustica," AJP 50 (1929) 64-70; "Totalitarian Sparta," Crozer Quarterly 28 (1931) 13-32; "Aristomenes the Messenian," TAPA 69 (1938) 500-31; "Alcmena and Amphitryon in Ancient and Modern Drama," TAPA 87 (1956) 192-238; "The American Philological Association: An Historical Sketch," TAPA 94 (1963) x-1.

NOTES

L. R. Shero belonged to that group of Oxford-trained scholars whom President Frank Aydelotte brought to Swarthmore in the 1920s, when he introduced the Honors Program for gifted students in their last two years of college and thereby transformed the institution. Shero's experience as a Rhodes Scholar at New College qualified him to serve as one of the foundation sires of the new system. As professor of Greek (together with Ethel H. Brewster, professor of Latin) he developed an exemplary program in classical studies which, without neglecting the students who chose to remain "in course," set rigorous standards for work in honors seminars in Greek and Latin and regularly attracted the most capable and demanding students. Shero was one of that valiant band of American classicists who enabled small departments to survive the threats to their existence imposed by economic depression and World War II; he pulled the Swarthmore Classics Department safely into the fifties, when more favorable conditions fostered its expansion. While teaching the overloads expected in a two-person department, he nevertheless found time for scholarship, where his interest—originally focused on satire—turned at length to mythology, although his teaching of Greek history also led to a number of publications. He frequently served as referee for TAPA and other journals, the kind of service that, being anonymous, receives no public recognition. He was a faithful supporter of local and regional classical associations, as well as those of the APA, which he served as secretary-treasurer and president, and whose history he wrote in 1963. No memoir of L. R. Shero could omit his contribution to amateur theatricals, in both Greek and English. Gifted with a booming voice, precise articulation, and an infallible sense of timing, he was a superb comic actor. He produced and acted in a series of Greek comedies, sometimes collaborating with L. A. Post of Haverford, and initiated the tradition of Greek plays put on by the Classics Club at Swarthmore. He regularly performed in faculty plays, winning acclaim in comedies as varied as "Love for Love" and "The Male Animal." A gifted organist, he for many years played for the weekly college "Collection," Commencement, and other occasions. For these and many other services to Swarthmore he and his daughters, also members of the college staff, received the John W. Nason Award for distinguished service to Swarthmore, in 1959.

Sources

• Rutgers' Database of Classical Scholars
• Find A Grave: Memorial #167064383