DR. GEORGE T. RADAN

RADAN

DR. GEORGE T., of Bryn Mawr on May 16, 2012. Husband of Maryann P. (nee Mulqueen) Radan, father of Christopher B. and, Cornelius A. Radan.
Prior to joining the Villanova faculty in 1960, Dr. Radan had served for several years as Assistant Director of the Israeli National Maritime Museum. After Real Gymnasiums in Vienna and Budapest during the war, he obtained his doctorate from the Pazmany Peter University of Budapest in Art History and Archaeology. At the Sorbonne and the Ecole du Louvre, in 1966/67 while on a French government scholarship, Dr. Radan worked under Professor Picard and Monsieur Bazin (Conservateur-en-Chef of the Louvre), earning his A.E.M. degree in Museology. In 1968/69, at the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania on a post-doctoral grant, his research centered on Ancient Maritime Trade (resulting in a book on this subject.) In 1972/73 he spent a year working at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences on an American Council of Learned Societies grant. This research on ancient Syrian and Jewish communities during the Severean period in Pannonia led to a book entitled the Archaeology of Roman Pannonia. In 1975 he was the recipient of an International Research and Exchange Board grant to Hungary, where he researched river trade in the Roman provinces. In 1985 he received a grant to the National Israeli Maritime Museum where he was consultant for the new wing of the museum. Dr. Radan's fascination with the sea and marine archaeology was inherited from his father, a ship captain, and his brother, a commodore. He dedicated one of his books to "his years before the mast" in memory of the voyages he took with them. Dr. Radan agrees with Prof. Ridgeway of Bryn Mawr College that it was the application of archaeology's methodology to art history which created a high standard of scholarship in American Art history. He quotes Buckminster Fuller: "We will accelerate rapidly into yesterday through archaeology as we do into tomorrow with astronautics."
Dr. Radan met his wife. Maryanne, when they were both working in the Holy Land. They were married in Nazareth in the Annunciation chapel of the Franciscan Monastery.
By the time, in 1989, he received a National Endowment of the Humanities grant to conduct research at the Vatican Library in Rome, Dr. Radan's interest in research already had taken a significant turn. This change occurred after a Smithsonian Institute excavation where he served as senior researcher at the ancient Roman Provincial capital of Sirmium in Yugoslavia and conducted related research in Italy. The research took him to the medieval city of Siena, where it was love at first sight. The next year, at the time when medieval excavations were still in their infancy in Italy, Dr. Radan started an Archaeological campaign which lasted for many years. He served as field director of the Wayne State, N Kentucky State, Etruscan Foundation and Augustinian Historical Institute teams. The digs zeroed in on the characteristics of hermitages to establish the link between St. Augustine and his 5th Century followers in Africa and the 13th century eremitical communities in Tuscany. They resulted in the discovery of an ancient cave chapel under the hermitage of S. Leonardo al Lago and the largest ossuaries ever found in Tuscany under the church of Santa Lucia.
Prof. Radan established the Villanova Department of Fine Arts in 1962 and chaired it for a quarter of a century. In 1972 he founded the Villanova-Rosemont Program in Italy, the University's first foreign program. It was dedicated to teaching students in a Renaissance milieu in a country which is a "museum without walls" and where the culture changes every few miles. Four years later, the University's first archaeological dig was pioneered by Dr. Radan.
Dr. Radan has published over 50 articles and book reviews, as well as a number of books on art and archaeology. One of his books The Sons of Zebulon was made into a film. His publications have appeared in such journals as the Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania, Israeli Exploration Journal, Acta Archaeologica, Arts Magazine, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Archaeologia Viva, and Medit Hist. Review. His recent contribution to a Festschrift on Tuscan hermitages is in print in Italy. In 1985 Dr. Radan was awarded the Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award.
In 1990, Dr. Radan received an invitation from the Superintendency of Tuscany to excavate the Roman settlement at Buonconvento in 1991.
Dr. Radan feels privileged to have had a part in the process of the cultivation of artistic consciousness on campus. He feels that art is essential since we live in a world which is dominated by visual commu-nication, and that Villanova's commitment to the arts is a commitment to society at large. He was instrumental in securing Dugan's sculpture the "Awakening" and in the incorporation of the University Art Gallery in the Connelly Center.
Professor Radan believes that one of the criteria for determining the standard of a university is the degree of excellence of the faculty, which, in turn is judged by its dedication to quality teaching and excellence in research. He believes strongly in high quality introductory courses which perpetuate humanistic traditions, and inspire students through the challenge of theories introduced in the lectures. He enjoys working with his students: "I learn from my student," Dr. Radan says.
Dr. Radan served on a number of committees, the longest of which (12 years) was the Arts and Sciences Curriculum Committee. In 1990, he was elected to the Rank and Tenure committee.
A Memorial Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated 11:00 A.M. Tuesday in Our Mother of Good Counsel Church, Lancaster Ave. and Pennswood Rd., Bryn Mawr where family and friends may call after 10:00 A.M. Interment Calvary Cem.

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