Charles W. Dunn, Margaret Brooks Robinson Professor of Celtic Languages and Literatures, Emeritus, at Harvard University, died in Boston on July 24th, aged 90.
Born in the manse of Arbuthnott, Scotland, in 1915, the son of a Church of Scotland minister, he received his schooling in the four places to which his father was subsequently called: Aberdeen; Edinburgh; Boston; and Hamilton, Ontario. He graduated with a BA in English and German from McMaster University in 1938.
Although he had spent his childhood in Scotland he had not then acquired a knowledge of Gaelic. He began to remedy this deficiency in the years 1938-41 when, as a graduate student at Harvard University, he studied Celtic languages and literatures under Fred Norris Robinson (for whose wife, Margaret Brooks Robinson, the Chair of Celtic would subsequently be named) and Kenneth Jackson.
He and his first wife, Patricia Campbell, spent their honeymoon in Cape Breton in the summer of 1941, returning to live there among the rural farming and fishing communities throughout the 1942-43 academic year. It was during this time that he collected the materials for what would become the classic Highland Settler: a Portrait of the Scottish Gael in Nova Scotia (University of Toronto Press, 1953).
He describes his purpose in this book as being "to record the experience of the settlers and their descendants and to describe the effects of emigration upon their folk-culture". The work was to some extent a personal as well as a cultural homecoming: his grandfather had once served in Nova Scotia as a Church of Scotland minister, and it was there his father had been born.
Charles earned an AM from Harvard in 1939 and a PhD in 1948. Having taught for various periods at Cornell, the University of Toronto and New York University, where he was professor of English for seven years (1956-63), he returned to Harvard in 1963 as chairman of the Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures, a position he held until his retirement in 1984. The department provided a welcoming environment from which easy access could be gained to such great Harvard scholars of the period as John Kelleher, Albert Lord, Calvert Watkins, Einar Haugen and Jere Whiting in neighbouring fields. Such interdisciplinarity was greatly encouraged by Charles Dunn, himself a distinguished medievalist. He also unashamedly used his position of master of Quincy House (1966-81) to promote Celtic scholarship: for instance, Myles Dillon resided there with his wife when conducting a summer school in early Irish at Harvard in 1971.
More than any other person Charles Dunn is responsible, through his learning, example and congenial personality, for the burgeoning of Celtic Studies as an academic discipline throughout North America, while former students also occupy prominent academic positions in Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
As well as Highland Settler, his publications include The Foundling and the Werwolf, a literary-historical study of Guillaume de Palerne, Middle English Literature (with Edward Byrnes), The Role of the Poet in Early Societies (with Morton Bloomfield), and numerous editions of medieval texts. His scholarships and versatility is further demonstrated by his membership of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Folklore Society, the Modern Language Association, the Medieval Academy of America and the Early English Text Society, among others.
He remained an incorrigible Scot throughout his life. He wore suits he had purchased in Scotland, loved his Scotch (preferably single malt), and kept in constant touch through reading The Scotsman. He would wear the kilt on festive occasions and dance Scottish country dances although, invariably the perfect gentleman, he was rarely known to play the bagpipes.
His first wife, Patricia, died in 1973. His subsequent marriage to Elaine Birnbaum brought him much happiness in later years. She survives him, as does their son, Alexander. He also leaves a son and daughter from his first marriage, two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
SÓC