William Berg III (August 13, 1938 – May 16, 2021), was an American classicist and historian from Gearhart,

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

. On his mother’s side he was a descendant of pioneers (the Kernses) who had migrated from

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

in 1852. Berg grew up in

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city in Boulder County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the most ...

, where his father taught

Constitutional Law Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as the basic rights of citizens and, in ...

at the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the University of Colorado Denver, and the U ...

, and in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, where he witnessed the

McCarthy era McCarthyism is a political practice defined by the political repression and persecution of left-wing individuals and a campaign spreading fear of communist and Soviet influence on American institutions and of Soviet espionage in the United S ...

in the shadow of his father’s boss and mentor, Oregon Senator

Wayne Morse Wayne Lyman Morse (October 20, 1900 – July 22, 1974) was an American attorney and United States Senator from Oregon. Morse is well known for opposing the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party’s leadership and for his opposition t ...

Education

After immersion in

ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

under the tutelage of Anselm Strittmatter, O.S.B., he majored in

Classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

. Graduating with academic honors in 1960, he went on to earn a Ph.D. at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

in 1966. Awarded a

Fulbright Grant The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people o ...

, he spent the academic year 1960-61 at the

American School of Classical Studies The American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA; ) is one of 19 foreign archaeological institutes in Athens, Greece. It is a member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC). CAORC is a private not-for-profit federati ...

in Greece, undergoing archaeological training through excavation at ancient

Corinth Corinth ( ; , ) is a municipality in Corinthia in Greece. The successor to the ancient Corinth, ancient city of Corinth, it is a former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese (region), Peloponnese, which is located in south-central Greece. Sin ...

. That training led to participation in the

Samothrace Samothrace (also known as Samothraki; , ) is a Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea. It is a municipality within the Evros regional unit of Thrace. The island is long, in size and has a population of 2,596 (2021 census). Its main industries ...

excavations in the summer of 1964. Awarded a ''Dankstipendium'', Berg went on to spend a year at the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (; ), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The University of Tübingen is one of eleven German Excellenc ...

in Germany, mentored by

Wolfgang Schadewaldt Wolfgang Schadewaldt (15 March 1900 in Berlin – 10 November 1974 in Tübingen) was a German classical philologist working mostly in the field of Greek philology and a translator. He also was a professor of University of Tübingen and Universi ...

, where he completed drafts of his Ph.D. dissertation on sources for

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

's ''

Bucolics The ''Eclogues'' (; , ), also called the ''Bucolics'', is the first of the three major works of the Latin poet Virgil. Background Taking as his generic model the Greek bucolic poetry of Theocritus, Virgil created a Roman version partly by of ...

''.

Teaching and Work

Berg’s formal teaching career began at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

in Los Angeles. He went on to teach at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

from 1967 to 1974. While there he published a book, ''Early Virgil'', along with several articles on

Greek myth Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories concern the ancien ...

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

, and

religion Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...

, and led a student archaeological tour (Stanford-In-Greece) in the summer of 1974, where he witnessed the momentous fall of the

Greek military junta The Greek junta or Regime of the Colonels was a right-wing military junta that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974. On 21 April 1967, a group of colonels with CIA backing overthrew the caretaker government a month before scheduled elections wh ...

and the return of those they had exiled. Since 1975 Berg lived in Gearhart, a small town on the

coast, where he won election to the

City Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counc ...

and helped draft its Comprehensive Land Use Plan, organizing and directing resource inventories, surveys, and data analysis. As a result of this planning activity, Gearhart was able to avoid an expensive municipal sewer and completed an award-winning solar retrofit to the Fire House.Election and activities in Gearhart Remembered
ch. 10-11 The first edition of his history of Gearhart was published in 2001. Berg has kept up his studies of

and

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

, occasionally publishing new material, including an e-book translation of ''

Philogelos ''Philogelos'' (), also titled or subtitled ''The Jests of Hierocles and Philagrius'', is a Greek-language book published in late antiquity that is the oldest known surviving collection of jokes. Context Although the ''Philogelos'' is the ol ...

'', the world’s oldest extant joke book. In 1987 he took a teaching position at St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Lured away to the

Kingdom of Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. according ...

by a

Fulbright The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

Lectureship in 1989, he spent the year teaching and gaining new insights into ancient philosophy from

Futa Helu Futa Helu (17 June 1934 – 2 February 2010) was a Tongan philosopher, historian, and educator. He studied philosophy under the Australian empiricist John Anderson and in 1963 launched an educational institute named Atenisi (Tongan for Athens, ...

, founder of ‘Atenisi University in Nuku’alofa. Before returning to

, he assisted Futa in completing a ground-breaking work on

Heraclitus Heraclitus (; ; ) was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek Pre-Socratic philosophy, pre-Socratic philosopher from the city of Ephesus, which was then part of the Achaemenid Empire, Persian Empire. He exerts a wide influence on Western philosophy, ...

. Berg’s collaboration with the Parisian scholar Jean-Claude Picot has resulted in the publication of several articles on

Empedocles Empedocles (; ; , 444–443 BC) was a Ancient Greece, Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a native citizen of Akragas, a Greek city in Sicily. Empedocles' philosophy is known best for originating the Cosmogony, cosmogonic theory of the four cla ...

. Berg’s interest in

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

and

Patristic Greek Koine Greek (, ), also variously known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek, Septuagint Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-regional form of Greek spoken and written during the Hellenistic ...

was instigated by the cryptographer Michael Wood, and has resulted in the translation into vernacular English of the entire

, along with other works related to

ancient Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of observing the Mosaic covenant, which the ...

and

early Christianity Early Christianity, otherwise called the Early Church or Paleo-Christianity, describes the History of Christianity, historical era of the Christianity, Christian religion up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Spread of Christianity, Christian ...

; those include his published, annotated translation of

Cramer Cramer may refer to: Businesses * Cramer brothers, 18th century publishers * Cramer Systems, a software company * Cramer & Co., a former musical-related business in London Other uses * Cramer (surname), including a list of people and fictional ...

's '' Catena'', a collection of fourth-century comments on Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Since 2005, he was a member of Translatum Forum, where he served as moderator of the ancient Greek and Latin boards. This activity has sustained and enhanced his familiarity with the

modern Greek Modern Greek (, or , ), generally referred to by speakers simply as Greek (, ), refers collectively to the dialects of the Greek language spoken in the modern era, including the official standardized form of the language sometimes referred to ...

language, as may be evidenced in Berg’s translation of ''Romiosini'' by the revolutionary poet

Yiannis Ritsos Yiannis Ritsos ( ; 1 May 1909 – 11 November 1990) was a Greek poet and communist and an active member of the Greek Resistance during World War II. While he disliked being regarded as a political poet, he has been called "the great poet of th ...

, which was published in 2014.Morrison on Ritsos and Crisis - The Recusant
/ref>

Published works

* ''Early Virgil'' (University of London Press, 1974) * ''Gearhart Remembered'' (Gearhart Homeowners Association, 2001, 2013) * ''Philogelos: A Laugh Addict'' (ebook: Yudu Publishing 2008) *

, ''Romiosini'' (translation: Smokestack Books 2014) * ''Paul’s Letter to the Galatians: A Fourth-century View'' (Consolamini Publications 2015) * Plus numerous published articles 1965 — 2018, listed i
Academia.edu
page.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berg, William 1938 births 2021 deaths American classical scholars Stanford University Department of Classics faculty Classical scholars of the University of California, Los Angeles Johns Hopkins University alumni Princeton University alumni People from Berkeley, California