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Note: SSDI:
CHARLES M EDWARDS 20 Jan 1953 12 Dec 1992 (not specified) (none specified) 422-78-0573 issued in Alabama [died Travis Co., TX, acc. to TX Death Index]
http://www.utexas.edu/faculty/council/2000-2001/memorials/SCANNED/edwards.pdf
IN MEMORIAM
CHARLES M. EDWARDS
Charles Edwards, Assistant Professor in the Department of Art andArt History, died December 12, 1992. He taught the history of ancient art, with a specialization in Greek sculpture and vase painting. He was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on January 20, 1953. Charles studied classics and the history of art at Haverford College, graduating with honors in 1975. In the M.A. and Ph.D. programs at the Institute of Fine Artss, New York University, he studied Greek vase painting with Dietrich von Bothmer, Roman art with Peter von Blanckenhagen, and Greek sculpture with Evelyn Harrison. He carried out research on his doctoral dissertation on Greek votive reliefs to Pan and the Nymphs during a four-year stay at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. As a member of the American School, Charles worked at the Agora excavations and later at ancient Corinth. Before completing his dissertation in 1986 he taught for a semester at Vassar College. He came to the University's Department of Art and Art History in August, 1986.
Charles worked on ancient Greek sculpture from several points of view: from excavated fragments, from literary sources, and through Roman copies of lost Greek originals. Major publications currently in press include a Hesperia volume on the sculpture of the Arch over the Lechaion Road at Corinth and "Lysippos," a chapter in Personal Styles in Greek Sculpture (Yale University Press, 1994). Both combine a masterful understanding of the ancient and modern literature with the practical knowledge of the sculpture from hands-on experience. His unfinished manuscript on Roman copies of Greek sculpture at Corinth, based on years of work at the site with enigmatic fragments excavated since 1890, promised to solve many questions that had baffled other scholars.
At the University, Charles quickly distinguished himself as a gifted graduate and undergraduate teacher, from the beginning getting from students rave reviews. He had an extraordinary talent for coaxing the very best work out of his students. In evaluations they praised his ability to stimulate them through challenging assignments and lots of discussion both in and out of the classroom. Given his short period of time at the University, he supervised an unusually high number of M.A. and Ph.D. students. And he was as appreciated by his colleagues as he was by his students.
Every encounter with Charles was an occasion for dialogue, both serious and jocular. Whether it was sitting next to him in the slide room, going to the movies, or driving to the museums in Houston and San Antonio, Charles entertained us with his endless supply of stories-from accounts of classical mythology to the fiction of Eudora Welty. A high point of any convivial occasion would be his readings of Welty's stories or the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop, always intoned with a sensitivity to dialect and diction.
Throughout his long struggle with AIDS, Charles always strove to keep his visitors at ease, minimizing his own discomfort and fear. The jokes and the gossip never stopped, not even in the final hours. Scores of devoted friends, colleagues, former teachers, and students traveled to Austin from throughout the world to be with Charles in the final months of his life, and he made time for all of them. He is, and always will be, greatly missed.
Robert M. Berdahi, President
The University of Texas at Austin
H. Paul Kelley, Secretary
The General Faculty
This Memorial Resolution was prepared by a special committee consisting of Professor John R. Clarke (Chair), Associate Professor Brenda I. Preyer, and Assistant Professor Ann M. Reynolds.
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