Ithaca College

John Bertram Harcourt, a professor in the English department at the College for 32 years, died Sunday, April 17, 2005, at home.

Professor Harcourt joined the newly created English department at the College in 1953 and was one of the original architects of the Triplum curriculum, a comprehensive and coordinated humanities sequence in English, philosophy, and history. He was also a charter member of Ithaca College's chapter of Phi Kappa Phi, the national honor society, and a past president of the organization. Each year there is a scholarship awarded by the chapter in his name.

Professor Harcourt was a tireless advocate of the College. He gave numerous talks and slide presentations concerning the College to alumni groups and in 1983 published The Ithaca College Story, a history of the College from its founding as a music conservatory in 1892 up to its expansion onto South Hill as a comprehensive college through 1975. In 1982 he received the Alumni Meritorious Service Award and the year after was granted the title of Honorary Alumnus. He was named the college historian in 1984.

More than anything else, Professor Harcourt was a dedicated and highly admired teacher. Three decades of Ithaca College students benefited from his classes in Shakespeare and Dante, and his Shakespeare Readers' Theater, an integral part of his classes, was legendary.

He was appointed the College's first Charles A. Dana Professor in 1977, and retired as Charles A. Dana Professor Emeritus in 1985.

There will be a memorial service held at St. John's Episcopal Church in downtown Ithaca at 3:00 p.m., Friday, April 22.