Benjamin Dean Meritt

Benjamin Dean Meritt (March 31, 1899 in Durham, North Carolina – July 7, 1989 in Austin, Texas) was a classical scholar, professor and epigraphist of ancient Greece.^[1] He was the older son of Arthur Herbert Meritt, a professor of Greek and Latin at Trinity College (later Duke University).^[1] His younger brother Herbert Dean Meritt was a professor of English philology at Stanford University.^[2]

Meritt was educated at Hamilton College (B.A. 1920) and Princeton University (M.A. 1923, Ph.D. 1924).^[1] He was an assistant director of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, is notable for his development of the Athenian Tribute Lists^[3] and worked extensively on Athenian calendaring.^[4]

Meritt taught at a number of universities including University of Vermont, Brown University, University of Michigan, Princeton University and the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. In 1935 he became a member of the faculty at the Institute for Advanced Study, a position he would hold until his retirement. That same year, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.^[5] He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1938.^[6] In 1972, he moved with his wife, Lucy Shoe Meritt, to the University of Texas at Austin as a visiting professor. The following year she became a visiting professor as well.