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Edwin P. Menes (February 2, 1939 - August 25, 2018)

Born in Gary, Indiana, Edwin Peter Menes grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. Stricken with polio when he was three, Ed was always fiercely independent and never let his disability slow him down.

He graduated from St. Ignatius High School at fifteen years of age (1954)—the youngest graduate in school history and class valedictorian. He next attended Xavier University, earning his A.B. in the Classics Honors Program (1958). His M.A. (1960) and Ph.D. (1968) were from Princeton, the latter completed with a dissertation on Propertius (Cynthia as Symbol: Love, Patriotism, and Poetry in the Elegies of Propertius). Meanwhile he spent two years (1960–1962) teaching at Tabor Academy, Marion, Massachusetts, before accepting a position in the Department of Classical Studies at Loyola University Chicago (1963).

He taught at Loyola's Rome Center of Liberal Arts (now the John Felice Rome Center) three times and traveled all over Europe, most notably on a Vespa through Eastern Europe; the scooter caught fire in Belgrade, putting an end to that adventure and forcing him to take a train back to Rome. Back in Chicago he served as associate director of the Rome Center (1975–1979) and chairman of the Department of Classical Studies (1984–1995). He retired in 2009.

Ed Menes was a classicist, philologist, poet, philhellene, and lover of Rome and Italy. He will be missed for his wry sense of humor, his loyalty, his patience and generosity. Ed is survived by his three children: Daniel Joseph (Sally) Menes, Julia Claire (Charles) Fischer, and David Martin Menes; three grandchildren, Bridget Olivia Menes, Peter Alexander Menes, and Gabriel Owen Fischer; his brother Jack; his uncle Ted; and many cousins, nieces, and nephews.

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(Photo: "Candle" by Shawn Carpenter, licensed under CC BY 2.0)