Luther Terrell "Terry" Tyler

Luther Terrell "Terry" Tyler, 67, of Somerville, Massachusetts died on July 24 after a cruelly long period of illness. Terry was a member of the Wellesley College Department of English from 1978 until 2017. He grew up in New Orleans, a city whose culture he loved, studied, taught, and was shaped by. He graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School in 1969 and earned a Bachelor's Degree in English at Southwestern College (now Rhodes College) in Memphis. After attending Southwestern Terry came north to Yale for his PhD, before joining the Wellesley faculty, where he quickly became a beloved teacher and colleague, and a winner of the Pinanski Prize for excellence in teaching. In addition to his training in English Literature, Terry was a deeply informed lover of movies and sport and of popular music and culture. Over the course of his career, he taught courses on Romantic Poetry, Shakespeare, Medieval literature, Milton, the history of the novel, and others. In addition, he designed and taught courses in many subjects, including the culture of New Orleans, in Southern Literature, in the Literature of Suffering, in Twentieth Century British Cinema, in Gospel Music and Devotional Poetry. To talk to Terry about any of these subjects - and many more - was an exhilarating experience. He was one of the great talkers in the very talkative world of the academy - lively, funny, always choosing the surprising and exact formulation that brought to shareable life the object of his attention. He will be deeply missed by his colleagues, by his many former students, by his neighbors and fellow gardeners in Somerville; and, especially, by his wife of 30 years, Jane Becker, his daughters Molly and Ella, his brothers Steve and Doug Tyler of New Orleans, his nieces and nephews and sisters-in-law, and by all who had the irreplaceable pleasure of knowing him. There will be a Memorial Service at Wellesley College in the fall. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the Southern Poverty Law Center or to the Wellesley College Students' Aid Association.