Robert O. Fink

Robert Orwill Fink (4 November 1905, Geneva, Indiana – 17 December 1988, Mount Vernon, Ohio) was a papyrologist with a special interest in Roman military papyri.

Early life and education

The son of Orwill Clarkson Fink and Carlista Andrews Fink, Robert Fink attended Indiana University, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1930. After completing a Master of Arts degree at Cornell University in 1931, he went on to Yale University, where he studied under Michael Rostovtzeff, under whose direction he completed his Ph.D. in 1934 with a thesis on "Roman military accounts and records." He married Ruth Kuersteiner on 11 June 1935.

Academic career

In 1931, Fink was appointed instructor in Classics at Yale University and remained there until 1941, when he was appointed assistant professor of Classics at Russell Sage College for Women. In 1942, he accepted an appointment at Beloit College, where he was promoted to associate professor. In 1946, he moved to Kenyon College, where he rose to the rank of professor of classics.

In 1958, Kenyon College named him Euman Dempsey Professor of Classics. While at Kenyon College, he was named a Fulbright Scholar for research in Italy in 1956-1957 and the American Council of Learned Societies awarded him a Research Fellowship in 1963-1964. In 1966, the State University of New York at Albany appointed him professor of Classics. On his retirement in 1976 he returned to his former residence in Gambier, Ohio near Kenyon College.

Published works

Books

• The Feriale Duranum with A. S. Hoey and W. F. Snyder, (YCS, 1940)
• The Excavations at Dura-Europas. Final Report V, Part 1: The Parchments and Papyri with C. B. Wells and J. F. Gilliam. (1959)
• Roman Military Records on Papyrus (APA Monograph, no. 26, 1971).

Articles

• "Jerash in the First century A.D.," JRS, 23 (1933), pp. 109–124.
• "Lucius Seius Caesar", Socer Augusti, AJP, 60 (1939), pp. 326–332.
• "The Sponsalia of Classiarius: A Reinterpretation of P. Mich. Inv. 4703", TAPA, 72 (1941), pp. 109–124.
• "Mommsen's Pridianum B.G.U. 696", AJP, 63 (1942), pp. 61–71.
• "A Fragment of Roman Military Papyrus at Princeton", TAPA, 84 (1945), pp. 271–278.
• "The Cohors XX Palmyrenorum, a Cohors Equitata Milaria", TAPA, 78 (1947), pp. 159–170.
• "Infinitives Don't Have Tense", The Classical Journal, 48 (1952–53), pp. 34–36.
• "Centuria Rufi, Centuria Rufiana, and the Ranking of Centuries", TAPA, 84 (1953), pp. 210–215.
• "Catullus 64, 109", AJP, 84 (1963), pp. 72–74.
• "M. Aurelius Atho Marcellus", AJP, 88 (1967), pp. 84–85.
• "A Long Vowel before Final M in Latin?", AJP, 90 (1969), pp. 444–452.

Sources

• William E. McCulloch, "In Memoriam Robert O. Fink", The Classical Journal, vol. 85, No. 1 (Oct-Nov 1989), p. 84
• Woodall, "Fink, Robert Orwill (1905-1988)" in Ward W. Briggs, ed., Biographical Dictionary of American Classicists, (1994), pp. 176–78.