Mary-Ella-Milham

Dr. Mary Ella Milham '43

1995 Distinguished Alumna Award for Professional Achievement

Dr. Mary Ella Milham '43 was an international scholar. She was professor of Latin and Greek at the University of New Brunswick from 1954 until her retirement in 1987. She was the author and co-author of several books and is the only woman to have served as president of the Classical Association of Canada.

Dr. Milham was a Waukesha native graduating from Carroll in 1943 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Latin. She was editor of the Hinakaga, involved in student senate, and held membership in Sigma Tau Delta, Sigma Epsilon Sigma, Lambda Psi and Delta Sigma Nu. After Carroll, she pursued a master’s degree in English and doctoral degree in Classics and Linguistics from University of Wisconsin-Madison.

During her tenure at the University of New Brunswick, she earned the title as the longest serving professor in the department. Longevity, however, was not the only measure of her success as a university professor, researcher, and classicist of national and international repute.  

She was involved in the Classics Club, and was dean of women’s residences from 1955 to 1959. In the early 1960s she launched her European research career. She served terms as President of the Atlantic Women’s Intercollegiate Athletic Union, Humanities Association of Canada, and Classical Association of Canada. In 1986, she was honored by election to the New York Academy of Sciences, an unusual one for a classicist—only one percent of the academy’s membership came from this discipline.

Dr. Milham typified the liberal arts tradition and has been recognized for excellence in scholarship and teaching. Her list of professional achievements and awards is lengthy, including fellowships and research grants from the Canada Council, American Council of Learned Societies and the University of New Brunswick.  

She has been published in many learned journals including: Romance Philology, Glotta, American Journal of Philology, Vergilius, Italia Medioevale e Humanistica, Times Literary Supplement and Renaissance Quarterly. Milham passed away in 2010.

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