Eugene “E. V.” Vanderpool

In memoriam

Eugene was the eldest of three children born to Wynant Davis Vanderpool and Cornelia Willis Vanderpool. He was known as "Gee-gee" to close family growing up, Gene to his classmates, and later "E.V." to most of his students and colleagues. He attended St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, and received a bachelor's degree in 1929 from Princeton University, where he also did graduate work in the classics and in archaeology. In 1932, he went to the American School of Classical Studies in Athens and became a fellow in the new excavation of the Agora. In 1935 he married Joan Jeffery, who was working as a photographer at the excavations. Eugene was a habitual hiker, and during his rambles in the Greek countryside (frequently accompanied by students), he discovered scores of new sites for excavation. He knew the flora and fauna of the countryside as well as his mastery of the archaeological lore, and was also an expert in Greek epigraphy (ancient inscriptions). His expert knowledge of the battles of the Persian wars and the topography of ancient Greece formed the basis for many of his articles and inspired the researches of other scholars. His genius as a topographer was celebrated far beyond the corridors of the School, and led to his imprisonment during World War II in a German prisoner-of-war camp, where he conducted classes on ancient Greece for his fellow prisoners. He was exchanged in a prisoner swap in 1944 and went to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, but was soon back in Greece at the American School of Classical Studies, where he was a beloved and revered teacher and mentor. He was a Professor from 1947-1971, and Professor emeritus from 1971-1989. In 1956 he and Joan renovated an abandoned 17th-century monastery in Pikermi into a home for their family, dividing their time between there and Athens in later years. They had a son and three daughters, one of whom, photographer Lisa Vanderpool, married Miltiadis Evert (1939 – 2011), a Greek politician, Member of Parliament, Government minister, and ex-chairman of the New Democracy party. In the mid-1970's Eugene's studies led to the belief that remnants of an ancient structure discovered in 1949 in the southwest corner of the ancient agora, or market, at the foot of the Acropolis, were the remains of the prison where Socrates spent the last month of his life in 399 BC. He was awarded the Gold Medal for Distinguished Achievement of the Archeological Institute of America in 1975. Eugene Vanderpool died of Parkinson's disease on August 1st, 1989 in Athens, and was buried in Athens New Protestant Cemetery. New York Times August 3, 1989; Princeton Alumni Weekly 1989; the Free Dictionary Encyclopedia; family knowledge

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