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Leo Curran, retired classics professor
Leo C. Curran, associate professor emeritus in the Department of Classics, College of Arts and Sciences, died Sept. 29 in his Orchard Park home. He was 73.
Born in Bridgeport, Conn., Curran earned a bachelor's degree in classics from Yale University and won a fellowship for two years of study at Oxford University. At Oxford, he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in ancient history and ancient philosophy. He returned to Yale in 1958 to earn his doctorate in classics.
He was an assistant professor of classics at Yale from 1962-67 before he joined the classics faculty at UB.
Curran taught Latin and Greek at UB for 29 years, earning a SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1980. His research interests focused primarily on the poetry of the late Republic and early Empire. Most recently, his work centered on the use of computers and other advanced technology to enhance the study and teaching of Latin and ancient literature.
During his tenure at UB, he held a number of positions in the classics department, including chair, director of graduate studies and director of undergraduate studies.
He was a founding associate editor of Arethusa, a journal of literary and cultural studies based in the UB classics department.
Memorial service set for Hyman
A memorial service for Jacob D. Hyman, former dean and longtime faculty member in the UB Law School, will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday in the Francis M. Letro Courtroom in the UB Law School, O'Brian Hall, North Campus.
Lunch will be served in the O'Brian lobby immediately after the service. Those wishing to attend should R.S.V.P. to the law alumni office at 645-2107 or law-alumni@buffalo.edu.
Hyman died April 8 at his home in Edgewater, Fla. He was 97.
Known to his friends as "Jack" and to former students as "Dean Hyman," the Boston native earned a bachelor's degree magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1931 and a law degree cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1934.
After graduation, he began his legal career in New York City with Blumberg and Parker, a medium-sized law firm with a significant administrative practice before federal agencies. Hyman moved to Washington, D.C., in 1939 to join the legal staff of the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor. Three years later, he moved to the Office of Price Administration, where he worked for John Kenneth Galbraith and eventually became associate general counsel in charge of litigation in the special federal court that reviewed price-control orders.
In 1946, Hyman moved to Buffalo to join the faculty at the UB Law School, then located downtown on Eagle Street. His teaching and scholarship focused on the areas of administrative law, constitutional law, jurisprudence, and state and local government law.
Hyman became dean in 1953 and held that post until 1964, when he returned to full-time teaching. He retired for the first time in 1981, but kept teaching part time until 2000, when he again retired, at the age of 90, after 54 years at the Law School.