Eliot Professor Of Greek Lit Dies at 64

Cedric Hubbell Whitman '43, Eliot Professor of Greek Literature and author of "Homer and the Heroic Tradition," died Tuesday in Cambridge Hospital. He was 67.

Whitman joined the Harvard Faculty in 1947. He became an associate professor in 1954, and was named the first Jones Professor of Classic Literature in 1966. He assumed the Eliot Professorship in 1974.

Whitman won the 1958 Christian Gauss Prize for his work on Homer. He authored a volume of poetry, "Orpheus and the Moon Craters" (1941), and a long narrative poem, "Abelard."

Born in Providence, R.I. in 1916, Whitman graduated summa cum laude from Harvard in 1943. He earned his Ph.d. from the University in 1947.

A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Whitman was awarded Guggenheim Fellowships in 1961 and 1976. He is survived by his wife Ann, of Cambridge, and their daughters Rachel and Leda. The family will hold private services.