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Department of Classics
The University of Mississippi

In Memoriam: Dr. Lucy Turnbull

Dr. Lucy Turnbull works with a student on an item from the Robinson Collection in 1971.

We received the sad news Sunday, April 21, 2019 of the death of our emerita colleague, Dr. Lucy Turnbull.

Dr. Turnbull joined the University of Mississippi faculty in 1961, teaching classical art history, archaeology, mythology, and civilization and also working to catalogue and curate the recently acquired David M. Robinson Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities. She was a dedicated teacher and an outstanding scholar of Greek art and archaeology, who served as campus leader during times of great challenges to the University. She was instrumental in the expansion of the University Museum in the 1970s, and directed the Museum for much of the 1980s.

After her retirement in the early 1990s, Dr. Turnbull remained active in the Oxford community and in her church, and continued as a true colleague to us in the Department of Classics. She will be deeply and sincerely missed.

We invite you to visit Dr. Turnbull’s obituary and a tribute page, or to read a short piece honoring her in the 2012 College of Liberal Arts publication, View From Ventress. Finally, below is a link to an essay by Lucy “On Museums” from another University publication in 1971; this last really captures her spirit as an educator and the best kind of classicist.

On Museums_University Letter 1971