|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
People SearchFind an individual who either played a sport or was a member of a support group. Search by last name by clicking on the first letter of the person's last name.
Dr. Burton Raffel (Deceased)
Home:
Work:
Home Phone: -- Longtime UL professor, author Raffel dies Amanda McElfresh, amcelfresh@theadvertiser.com , The Advertiser, Oct. 1, 2015 Longtime professor, author and translator Burton Raffel has passed away. He was 87. Raffel’s career brought him to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where he taught for more than a decade in the 1990s and early 2000s before retiring. In 2003, he retired and was named a professor emeritus in the university’s Department of English. Raffel was perhaps best known for his translations of the classics “Beowulf” and “Don Quixote.” According to his UL website, he also was the author of “Beethoven in Denver and Other Poems,” “The Art of Translating Prose” and “Yankee Doric: America Before the Civil War.” His teaching and research areas included comparative literature, modern fiction, prosody, linguistics, science and literature, according to his UL website. “Burton was passionate about everything and one of the most knowledgeable people that I’ve ever known,” said Richard Cusimano, a close friend of Raffel’s and former dean of UL’s College of Liberal Arts. “More than just having an interest in literature, he was interested in world affairs and everything going on in the news.” Cusimano said Raffel also was a frequent traveler and went to places around the globe, including a stint teaching English at universities in Indonesia, where he was a Fulbright lecturer. At UL, Cusimano said Raffel taught undergraduate and graduate courses. “He was a superb teacher. Students genuinely liked him,” Cusimano said. “He made the work very hard, and if anyone complained, it was because of the amount of work he gave them. But even with that, he was well-liked and extremely knowledgeable about literature.” Raffel was fluent in several European languages, and could translate literary works from different eras. Cusimano said he also annotated several Shakespeare works, which became helpful for students and scholars across the country. “It was just wonderful to have him here,” Cusimano said. “Having him on the faculty raised the reputation of the Department of English. He helped us establish a creative writing program. He was probably one of the best-known and most renowned translators in the United States, and it was a feather in the cap of UL to have him at our university.” Funeral arrangements are pending. Martin and Castille Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. * * * * * * * * * * Obituary: Burton Nathan Raffel – former faculty member – September 29, 2015 LAFAYETTE – Burton Raffel died Tuesday, September 29. He was a loving husband of Elizabeth, father to Brian, Blake (deceased), Kezia, Shifra, Nathan and Wendy and grandfather of seven including six grandsons residing in Jerusalem, Israel: Yitzchak, Aryeh, Reuven, Yehuda, Yosef Chaim and Shloimie Pride. His only granddaughter, Samiah Rose Elaham Raffel, resides here in Lafayette. In 1989, he came to the University of Louisiana Lafayette as Distinguished Professor of Arts and Humanities. He was a passionate, committed and charismatic teacher who cared deeply about his students and pushed them hard to learn. He retired with regret in 2003. He dearly loved communicating knowledge. Raffel led an extraordinary life guided by his heart and the courage to take risks most only dream of taking. He was educated at Brooklyn College (B.A., 1948), Ohio State University (M.A., 1949), and Yale Law School (J.D., 1958). An accomplished translator from many languages, he was also a poet and writer, publishing more than 100 books with publishers including Penguin, Random House, Yale University Press, Norton and Northwestern University Press in Evanston, Illinois. He is best known for his translation of the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf, widely anthologized and one of the most widely used translations in the country. Over the years he received letters of gratitude from students all over the country whose lives were touched and changed by reading this book. He spent 1953-55 in Indonesia working for the Ford foundation teaching English to teachers of English. This period of his life left a deep and much treasured impression on him. He returned to attend Yale Law School, another life-changing experience. From there he went to a major Wall Street firm, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy where he practiced law for two years before deciding it was not for him. He was founding editor of Foundation News before returning to academia at State University of New York Stoneybrook in 1965. He was the first full professor at Haifa University in Israel, then taught at the University of Texas Austin, York University in Toronto, Ontario and the University of Denver before finally coming to the University of Louisiana Lafayette. Of his many translations, he was most proud of his final work, Dante’s Divine Comedy, published by Northwestern University Press in Illinois. He spent a lifetime contemplating how to best capture in English the power and beauty of Dante’s incomparable terza rima. He was also very proud of his 1991 translation of Rabelais’ Gargantua and Pantagruel, for which he won the 1991 French-American Foundation Translation Award. In 1996 he translated Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote, which has been acclaimed for making Cervantes more accessible to the modern generation. Raffel worked with Yale Press and Harold Bloom on a series of 14 annotated Shakespeare plays. In 2008, Random House’s Modern Library published his new translation of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. Burial at the Jewish Cemetery will be private. In lieu of flowers the family requests that friends and students contact Dr Jordan Kellman, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts for information on making a donation to a ULL scholarship in Burton Raffel’s Name. View the obituary and guestbook online at www.mourning.com Martin & Castille-DOWNTOWN-330 St. Landry St., Lafayette, LA 70506, 337-234-2311 – See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/theadvertiser/obituary.aspx?n=burton-nathan-raffel&pid=175978675#sthash.I6OmELlO.dpuf LAFAYETTE – Burton Raffel died Tuesday, September 29. He was a loving husband of Elizabeth, father to Brian, Blake (deceased), Kezia, Shifra, Nathan and Wendy and grandfather of seven including six grandsons residing in Jerusalem, Israel: Yitzchak, Aryeh, Reuven, Yehuda, Yosef Chaim and Shloimie Pride. His only granddaughter, Samiah Rose Elaham Raffel, resides here in Lafayette. In 1989, he came to the University of Louisiana Lafayette as Distinguished Professor of Arts and Humanities. He was a passionate, committed and charismatic teacher who cared deeply about his students and pushed them hard to learn. He retired with regret in 2003. He dearly loved communicating knowledge. Raffel led an extraordinary life guided by his heart and the courage to take risks most only dream of taking. He was educated at Brooklyn College (B.A., 1948), Ohio State University (M.A., 1949), and Yale Law School (J.D., 1958). An accomplished translator from many languages, he was also a poet and writer, publishing more than 100 books with publishers including Penguin, Random House, Yale University Press, Norton and Northwestern University Press in Evanston, Illinois. He is best known for his translation of the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf, widely anthologized and one of the most widely used translations in the country. Over the years he received letters of gratitude from students all over the country whose lives were touched and changed by reading this book. He spent 1953-55 in Indonesia working for the Ford foundation teaching English to teachers of English. This period of his life left a deep and much treasured impression on him. He returned to attend Yale Law School, another life-changing experience. From there he went to a major Wall Street firm, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy where he practiced law for two years before deciding it was not for him. He was founding editor of Foundation News before returning to academia at State University of New York Stoneybrook in 1965. He was the first full professor at Haifa University in Israel, then taught at the University of Texas Austin, York University in Toronto, Ontario and the University of Denver before finally coming to the University of Louisiana Lafayette. Of his many translations, he was most proud of his final work, Dante’s Divine Comedy, published by Northwestern University Press in Illinois. He spent a lifetime contemplating how to best capture in English the power and beauty of Dante’s incomparable terza rima. He was also very proud of his 1991 translation of Rabelais’ Gargantua and Pantagruel, for which he won the 1991 French-American Foundation Translation Award. In 1996 he translated Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote, which has been acclaimed for making Cervantes more accessible to the modern generation. Raffel worked with Yale Press and Harold Bloom on a series of 14 annotated Shakespeare plays. In 2008, Random House’s Modern Library published his new translation of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. Burial at the Jewish Cemetery will be private. In lieu of flowers the family requests that friends and students contact Dr Jordan Kellman, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts for information on making a donation to a ULL scholarship in Burton Raffel’s Name. View the obituary and guestbook online at www.mourning.com Martin & Castille-DOWNTOWN-330 St. Landry St., Lafayette, LA 70506, 337-234-2311
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
