Robert David Stevick

Of all my professors, Prof. Stevick stood out as the best teacher and the finest of men. I came to know him first in my freshman year at the University of Washington in 1962, and we wrote occasionally over the years. I was fortunate to have known him and been in his class. I have never forgotten his influence.
--Marilyn Schuster Rowan

I first met Prof. Stevick as in the spring of 2000. I took his combined 10-credit accelerated course on the history and linguistic analysis of the English language, which was a new experimental course at the time. Prof. Stevick was already retired at the time, but chose to keep teaching part time because he enjoyed being in the classroom and interacting with students so much. His class opened my mind to a whole new way of seeing the English language and the history of languages, lessons that...

Robert Stevick was a dear man, and my mentor and dissertation advisor from 1980 until I submitted my dissertation (a translation of Beowulf and a commentary on the craft of translation) in the spring of 1983. I first met him in the spring, I believe, of 1979, when I studied with him in his Beowulf course. From the beginning,I was enthralled by both the poem and the professor's teaching. Unlike Tolkien, he did not begin his class with a dramatic, "Hwaet!" He simply entered the class with his...

Dear Glorene, Lisa, Eric and Your Families--You may know why I asked Professor Stevick to supervise my dissertation on the literature of Hawai'i, completed in 1982. After the last time I talked with him, 29 July 2018, by phone, a message I emailed him ended with a reminiscence of how in our Beowulf seminar we examined the Japanese sword that, when he squinted along its length angled under the light, he saw "hamora lafe," the remnants or marks of the hammer, just as swords are sometimes...

I still have his mimeographed handouts for Old English I. I remember he said the usual grammar books were inadequate. I was one of two undergraduates in his infamous Graduate "flunk" course where PhDs were eliminated. I was very proud of my B. He also told me not to take his undergraduate survey on Medieval Literature; he said I would be bored. A scholar and very kind teacher. Dr. Gerald L.Jones

I was "Mr." Stevick's secretary when he became chairman of the UW English Department, following Robert Heilman. (He called me Mrs. Feetham.) Office decorum was much different then (early 1970's).

We had a great working relationship, however. Since I was a doctoral student in the department, I had all my coursework completed by then. However, he asked me to take the required Old English (in which he had given me an "A") again; he also wanted to have me in his Beowulf seminar, which...

I was saddened to hear of the passing of Robert. His intellectual achievements and healthy lifestyle have been an inspiration to me. My thoughts are prayers are with his family and friends. I'm so sorry for your loss.

I never met Prof. Stevick, but once in the late 70s, I overheard some UW students at a bar, pontificating about who wrote Beowulf. I interjected that my brother had recently proven that it was Athelstan, and they scoffed. I heard them mention Prof. Stevick's name, so I called him the next day, and when I introduced myself, he said, "OH, are you any relation to David Howlett, the Oxford scholar?" We had a lovely conversation, and some time later, when my brother was visiting from Oxford, the...

I am very sorry to hear of the death of Robert. It was my great pleasure to meet this very unassuming and humble gentleman down in Kilkenny. He commissioned me to make a brooch for him based on the Dunadd stone sketch, I was chuffed he had asked me. I regularly told my wife, Mary, that he was the Einstein of the Insular Art world. He once told me. " if you live a long time you get old"