Harkness, Albert Granger

Albert Granger Harkness (1856-1923), professor of classics, was born in Providence on November 19, 1856, the son the Professor Albert Harkness 1842. He studied at the University Grammar School and entered Brown in 1874, but because of illness did not graduate until 1879. He taught classics at the Peddie School until 1881, then studied Latin and Greek philology at the Universities of Berlin, Leipzig, and Bonn. He was professor of Latin and German at Madison University (now Colgate) from 1883 to 1889, when he returned to Brown as associate professor of Latin. He became professor of Roman literature and history in 1893. In 1902-03 he was resident professor at the American School for Classical Studies in Rome. He died in Providence on January 29, 1923. He had taught until January 6 of that year. President Faunce said in his statement on Harkness’s death:

"Professor Harkness, our Senior professor at Brown, will be deeply missed. Modest and shunning publicity, he loved the quiet and still air of delightful study. His penetrating intelligence, his instantaneous reaction to any stimulus, his quick sense of humor made him beloved by a wide circle of friends. We never had a more conscientious teacher. In all his years at Brown he was absent only three times from any class because of illness. His father was a professor at Brown for 52 years and the son for 32 years, making a total of 84 years of classical teaching. It is doubtful if there is a parallel record in American colleges."