Dear John,
I want to thank you for what you, your wife Penelope, and your family have given to our department over the decades. As the John and Penelope Biggs Distinguished Professor of Classics, I have a special reason to be grateful: Your family’s generosity allowed me to join my wonderful colleagues and students here at WashU and to get to know your family. But I am certainly not alone. Everyone in our department — faculty, staff, and students — has benefited from your generosity and participation in our community.
Indeed, you and Penelope have both been valued members of the classics community, participating in social and academic events, visiting our classes, and joining our group readings of Greek and Latin poetry. I have especially enjoyed our weekly meetings over the last two years in which you and I, along with students, faculty, friends, and alumni, have discussed ancient Greek drama. In all this, you and Penelope have offered us models of what a degree in classics can mean for one’s life. We have learned from you how the study of classics not only furthered your remarkable career in business and academic administration but also cultivated a lifelong passion. Penelope provided a model of the professional classicist with her important contributions to classical scholarship and her successful career teaching Latin and classics at the university and secondary levels.
Thirty-five years ago, you and Penelope created the Biggs Family Residency in Classics, which brings a leading scholar to WashU each year for a week of lectures, conversation, and conviviality. The residency has been the greatest possible boon for our department and community, a high point of each year and an incomparable opportunity for students and faculty to interact with scholars around the world. A welcome feature of these residencies has been the participation of you and Penelope at the lectures and receptions, as well as the dinners you host for undergraduates, faculty, and others.
Last year, after the passing of Penelope, you and your family joined the department and friends in celebrating her work with a colloquium featuring papers by leading scholars on three areas dear to Penelope’s heart: the Greek tragedian Sophocles, the Latin poet Ovid, and the teaching of Latin. You also aptly recognized Penelope and her career through two generous gifts.
First, you endowed the Penelope Biggs Travel Award, which supports the study of the ancient Mediterranean world — not just in our department, but throughout WashU — by funding faculty and student travel related to classical antiquity. In its first year, the award supported the travel of 19 faculty members, graduate students, and undergraduates across four departments with projects ranging from archaeological excavations to seminars in papyrus conservation and Byzantine Greek to intensive programs in oral Latin. I have enjoyed sharing with you and your family the glowing reports recipients provided about their travel.
Second, you established an endowment that funds the Penelope Biggs Fellowship, which allows us to increase substantially the stipends for many of our graduate students. That endowment also funds the Penelope Biggs Scholarship for undergraduate students studying classics. Your support helps students meet their living expenses and enables us to recruit stronger scholars to our programs. I look forward to sharing with you the impact of these extraordinary awards on our students.
John, you have stated your intention to make the Department of Classics one of the premier programs in the country and to make the study of classics the liveliest and most conspicuous presence it can be on our campus, in our community, and beyond. In honor of this extraordinary gift, we carry the name “John and Penelope Biggs Department of Classics” with great pride. I pledge on behalf of the entire department that we will do everything in our power to fulfill the mission to which you have inspired us.
With deepest thanks,
John and Penelope Biggs Distinguished Professor of Classics,
Department Chair
