DAVID GORDON MITTEN

1935 - 2022

MITTEN, David Gordon Archaeologist, Curator, Teacher Passed away peacefully at home in Cambridge on January 18, 2022. His career at Harvard University spanned 60 years culminating as the James Loeb Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology Emeritus and the George Hanfmann Curator of Ancient Art Emeritus at the Harvard Art Museums. Prof. Mitten had a transformative effect on many. He was awarded a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in 1976, the Petra Shattuck Teaching Prize in 1989, the Phi Beta Kappa Prize for Excellence in Teaching in 1993, and received the Harvard Foundation's Faculty of the Year Award in 2009. He was known for teaching with small, overlooked objects and would declaim with a mischievous grin, "Never underestimate the importance of fibulae in the ancient world!" The son of Joseph and Helen Mitten, he grew up excavating fossils and arrowheads in Stow, OH, and gained a global perspective at Oberlin College. The Woodrow Wilson Fellowship allowed him to join the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis where, fluent in Turkish, he uncovered the largest early synagogue yet known. Motivated by the Qur'anic verse, "I have made you tribes and people so that you may get to know one another" he became a faculty advisor to the Harvard Islamic Society. He practiced Sufism, was a frequent contributor to Morning Prayers in Appleton Chapel, and he championed inter-religious understanding and social justice. He enjoyed performing as a member of the North Cambridge Family Opera. Prof. Mitten is survived by his wife, Heather Barney; daughters, Eleanor Mitten and Claudia Hon; his sister, Dr. Martha Mitten Allen; step-daughter, Sophia Farrar-Barney; sons-in-law, Robert Sapiro, Mark Hon, and Richard Shaefer; grandchildren, Elizabeth Schaefer, Lauren Hon, Alexander Hon, and Peter Sapiro-Mitten; great-grandchildren, Hannah and Montgomery Schaefer; and extended family and dear friends. Memorial Services will be held on October 17, 2022, at 10:30 AM at Memorial Chapel, Harvard University. Donations may be made to the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis, Cambridge Public Library, and Beth Israel Leahy Hospice Care.

View the online memorial for David Gordon MITTEN