Greek Composition Prize Renamed for Tom Rosenmeyer

November 9, 2007

The Department's Greek Composition Prize has been renamed, at the request of donor Marianne McDonald, in honor of Thomas G. Rosenmeyer, who died earlier this year. 

McDonald is Professor of Theater and Classical Studies at UC San Diego and author of a number of translations of Greek drama that have been performed by companies in Southern California. She endowed the prize in the 1995 to encourage mastery of Greek at a high level.  Each year a passage of formal English prose is set by an examiner, and any registered Berkeley student may enter a version in an appropriate style of ancient Greek. Until now the prize has been named the Marianne McDonald Greek Composition Prize, but starting this year it will be known as the Rosenmeyer Prize instead, in honor of a scholar who wrote so perceptively about Greek tragedies and the tradition of serious drama in the West.

For more information about the prize and previous winners, see our honor roll.