Milestones

020

Dick Steffy, who established the discipline of ship reconstruction almost single-handedly, died on November 29, 2007, at the age of 83.

Dick was a groundbreaking scholar and a wonderfully warm human being. He left a successful and secure career as an electrical engineer to help found the Institute of Nautical Archaeology and the nautical archaeology program at Texas A&M University.

Few scholars create an entirely new discipline. Dick did. In fact, he literally wrote the book on ship reconstruction, titled Wooden Ship Building and the Interpretation of Shipwrecks (1994). All those who came into contact with his gentle genius recognized Dick’s contribution to scholarship. Although he had no formal training, Texas A&M University conferred a full professorship on him, and in 1985 he became a MacArthur Foundation Fellow.

In the 1970s Dick worked with Michael and Susan Katzev and their team on the Kyrenia wreck, a Greek merchant ship that sank c. 300 B.C. off the northern coast of Cyprus. This was the first ancient ship to be raised from the Mediterranean seabed, conserved and reconstructed. Of the multitude of hulls that Dick studied, the Kyrenia ship remained his “baby.” He was still making new discoveries about her during his last days.

Dick made numerous visits to Israel to study the country’s shipwrecks, some of which are of unique importance. His work on the Athlit Ram and the Galilee Boat (the so-called “Jesus boat,”) remain masterpieces of detective work. Simply put, Dick could “read” a vessel’s construction the way you or I might read a newspaper. He was that good. Sometimes it was uncanny. After Dick had his first opportunity to study the Galilee Boat in daylight, he showed me a sketch of what he thought the boat had looked like. Soon afterwards the Franciscan Fathers Stanislau Lofreda and Virgilio Corbo, who had excavated at nearby Migdal, visited our boat excavation. They told me of a boat depicted in a first-century A.D. mosaic at their site. When Corbo drew it in my field notebook, I got goose bumps. His drawing replicated exactly what Dick had just drawn. Of course, Dick thought I was pulling his leg when I showed him Corbo’s drawing.^f

Dick’s wife of almost 40 years, Lucille, died in 1991. His two sons, David and Loren, his sister Muriel, his brother Milton and his seven grandchildren survive him. Dick will be deeply missed by all who knew him.— Shelley Wachsmann, Texas A&M University

Larry Toombs, distinguished archaeologist and Old Testament scholar, passed away on December 14, 2007, at 88 years of age.

Toombs served as a senior staff archaeologist at excavations in Jericho, Shechem, Tell el-Hesi and Caesarea Maritima, making numerous important contributions to the field during his 40-year career. He had a special knack for teaching, and he influenced countless students of archaeology and Biblical studies. He was once quoted as saying, “I cannot understand people who say, ‘Go back to the Bible.’ We have not caught up with it yet.”

Born in 1919 on Prince Edward Island, Canada, Toombs first pursued studies in the sciences and served as a meteorologist for the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II. After the war, he attended divinity school, was ordained and went on to earn a Ph.D. at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, where he eventually became a professor of Old Testament studies.

Toombs developed his interest in archaeology while at Drew and later studied it at the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem and at the Institute of Archaeology in London. He joined the faculty of Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, and was named professor emeritus when he retired in 1984.— D.D.R.

Dick Steffy, who established the discipline of ship reconstruction almost single-handedly, died on November 29, 2007, at the age of 83.