Russell A. Peck (1933–2023)

Russell A. Peck (1933–2023) Alan Lupack Russell A. Peck, the John Hall Deane Professor of Rhetoric and Literature at the University of Rochester, died on February 20, 2023. Russell had taught at Rochester for fifty-three years, the longest serving faculty member in the University's history. Even after his retirement, he contributed more to the academic and the scholarly communities than most professors do in their working years. His interests and accomplishments were a fascinating blend of the work ethic of his Wyoming upbringing and the training of his Princeton (undergraduate) and Indiana University (Ph.D.) education. A renowned scholar, Russell was also an inspirational teacher. His classes were often performances that involved singing and dramatic readings even as they conveyed his wide-ranging knowledge and love of literature and the arts. Over the years, he taught almost all major Middle English literature, including medieval drama, Arthurian literature, Langland, and Gower, as well as a Chaucer class that is vividly remembered by students from decades ago as a highlight of their college experience. Russell's scholarly projects were often ambitious, expansive, and multidisciplinary. His interest in fairy-tale motifs in medieval literature led not only to a popular class on myths and fairy tales but also to his Cinderella Bibliography (available through the Robbins Library Digital Projects), which documents the motif from its earliest appearances to the present and in many cultures. A major Gower scholar, Russell wrote the book Kingship and Common Profit in Gower's Confessio Amantis. He also produced a three-volume edition that has become the standard scholarly text of the Confessio. But Russell's greatest contribution to scholarship was conceiving of, founding, and serving as General Editor of the TEAMS Middle English Texts Series. The series now comprises over one hundred volumes of newly edited texts designed to be authoritative yet accessible to students and inexpensive enough to be used in the classroom (and also now freely available online). It is not an exaggeration to say that Russell's vision for this exceptional series has transformed the teaching of Middle English literature. Another of his major contributions to the study of the Middle Ages is the Rossell Hope Robbins Library at the University of Rochester. Without [End Page 178] Russell's vision of acquiring what was originally the personal collection of Rossell Hope Robbins, this valuable resource would not exist. Russell's embrace of dauntingly ambitious projects and his skill at negotiating institutional obstacles made possible a library that has achieved national and international importance and which has become the base on which projects such as the Middle English Texts and The Camelot Project could be built. In addition to being a meticulous and visionary scholar, Russell was also an extremely generous colleague. I have spoken to several people who, like me, asked him to write a recommendation in support of a promotion or grant application and who received a letter more effusive and complimentary than we would have written for ourselves. Another side of Russell that is worth noting is his love of nature—the land, his farm in Canada where he would tap maple trees, and the garden that he spent many hours tending. He especially loved his dahlias, which, as another example of his generosity, he freely shared with me and with others. Each fall he would dig up the tubers, which would not survive a Rochester winter, and every spring he would replant them. They would grow into plants with large, colorful blossoms—so beautiful as to make the annual effort worthwhile. I see these flowers, which I will continue to dig up and replant in his memory, as a symbol of the hope and optimism of my colleague and friend. Even last October, at eighty-eight, he prepared the plants in anticipation of their spring rebirth. In his garden, as in his teaching and his scholarship, he knew that the extra work would yield remarkable results. Russell especially loved the theater and shared that love with friends and students. Every fall he and Ruth, his beloved wife of sixty-four years, would bring students to the theater festival in Stratford, Ontario; and every summer they would lead groups...

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