James Svendsen

1942 - 2024

James Svendsen

1942-2024

James Svendsen died early in the morning of April 8, 2024. He was three weeks short of his 82nd birthday.

Although Jim had dealt with heart problems and other health issues for years - decades, really - the final culprit was pancreatic cancer. It is a particularly vicious form of cancer and he died only 10 days after being diagnosed. For his family, the shock of it all is balanced by relief that his period of suffering was brief.

Jim drove to Salt Lake City from the Twin Cities in a rustbucket VW Bug to take a teaching job at the University of Utah in 1969. Over the 40+ years that followed, he became one of the most beloved professors on campus. His focus was the humanities and drama, and classical Greek drama in particular. He was especially known for his enthusiastic and engaging classroom presence, with chalk shattering everywhere while his coffee splashed onto the floor. He founded the Classical Greek Theater Festival, which began as an idiosyncratic theater project at the U of U and grew into an much larger operation that toured around Utah and the West and included extensive educational outreach to local high schools. If you ever sat on the grass and saw Medea or The Trojan Women at dawn on a chilly fall morning, that was Jim's doing.

He never lost his modest midwestern sensibilities and bragging was pretty much the last thing he would ever do. But with all due respect, that's not going to stop us from doing a little crowing on his behalf. Jim was undoubtedly one of the U of U's most honored teachers. Among other accolades, he received the Madeleine Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts and Humanities, and a national award from the American Philological Association for teaching excellence in Classics. More than anything, he saw himself as a classroom teacher, and Jim was probably most moved to receive the U of U's Distinguished University Teaching Award, following in the footsteps of his friends Barbara Lindsay and Gene Fitzgerald.

There are no fancy awards for being a good dad or grandpa, but if there were Jim would have gotten those too. His sons Paul and Alex will not forget countless hours on the tennis court and throwing the football around in the street, as well as childhood summers spent in Greece (where Jim helped run a college summer abroad program). He was a truly exceptional grandfather for his grandchildren Luca, Nico, Vivienne, and Alexi, and it is essentially a foregone conclusion that Jim will be a first-ballot inductee to the Grandparent Hall of Fame when he becomes eligible.

He will share that honor with his wife Stephanie Peterson, to whom he was married for nearly 40 years. They were traveling companions, partners in life, and above all, true friends.

In the end Jim will be best remembered for his kindness, his sense of humor, and his smarts. And a good dose of integrity, too. All in all, that's a legacy he'd be content with.

We will host a memorial in Jim's honor from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, June 26 at Red Butte Garden. In the meantime, please don't send flowers. Jim set up two endowments for scholarships: the James Svendsen Endowment at the University of Utah Honors College (j.schimpf@honors.utah.edu, 801-503-7960) and the James Svendsen Scholarship in Greek Theatre and Theatre Studies at Westminster College (jdriggs@westminstercollege.edu, 801-832-2737). If you are interested in making a small contribution, Jim would have been thrilled.