Dr Minor Markle, formerly Senior Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History at the University of New England, died peacefully in his sleep at home in Invergowrie, near Armidale, on Saturday evening 30 May, not long after his 81st birthday on 10 May.
Minor Millikin Markle III, was born in 1935, the eldest child to parents who later had twin daughters. His father had taken over his own father’s legal conveyancing practice, and it was expected that Minor would follow the same path after completing (as they both had) an AB at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where he focused mainly on English literature. He then chose another direction from his father’s expectations, and was accepted into Magdalen College, Oxford, where his hopes to study with C.S. Lewis (a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature there since 1929) were dashed by Lewis’ move in 1954 to the newly established Chair of Mediaeval and Renaissance Literature at Magdalene College, Cambridge just as Minor arrived in England. Accordingly, he changed direction and undertook Greats, completing his MA there. The greatest and most long-lasting influence on him from his Oxford days was Geoffrey de Ste Croix, with whom he maintained an active correspondence for many years, and contributed an important essay (‘Jury Pay and Assembly Pay at Athens’) in the latter’s Festschrift, Crux (1985).
Minor’s return to America saw him teach at his alma mater, then his successful undertaking of his doctorate at Princeton on fourth-century Greek history, focusing particularly on Isokrates and Philip II. Teaching followed at the University of Virginia for a decade, and then several years at Johns Hopkins. Not given tenure, he left university work and established an antiques business for a couple of years until he was offered and accepted appointment as a Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History at UNE, arriving in Armidale in mid-1980, and retiring as a Senior Lecturer in 1998. The first American appointed to any Classics Department in Australia, he was one of the last appointees of John Bishop, who held the Foundation Chair of Classics at UNE; Bishop recognised that Minor was over-qualified for a lectureship, given the series of significant articles he had already published in the Journal of Hellenic Studies and elsewhere; and Minor was promoted to Senior Lecturer quite swiftly. He never published his Princeton thesis as a book, and in the last few years this became a matter of serious regret to him.
Minor’s interest in Macedonia (and its military history in particular) led to his having close academic and friendly links with a number of Greek archaeologists, not least Manolis Andronikos and Photios Petsas; his final publication, completed in retirement after a long gestation, on the shield monument at Beroia, appeared in Hesperia (1999). He is rightly regarded as the foremost authority on the sarissa, publishing several articles on this distinctive Macedonian combat innovation (including in the American Journal of Archaeology 1977 and 1978). A Japanese film crew came to Australia and worked with him in producing a documentary on how in practice the Macedonian phalanx worked so effectively with such long weapons. His Fellowship at the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington (1976/7) led to a number of longlasting friendships; and as a consequence he persuaded Josiah Ober (Princeton) and his wife, and later Kurt Raaflaub and Deborah Boedeker (both at Brown University RI), to visit UNE for extended periods as Visiting Fellows.
Minor Markle was a congenial colleague who loved company and was full of stories and anecdotes about those he knew. He could be very direct, and more than once commented how at ease he was in Australia because of the general distaste here for snobbishness. Over many years he built a remarkable house for himself at the end of a dirt road 15 km west of Armidale. The combination of Greek monumental architecture and Jeffersonian Monticello, its spacious rooms, high ceilings and colonnaded veranda made it legendary for those who had heard of it but never had the chance to visit. Not that he was a recluse. As a member of ADFASS, he gave an address on the architecture of his house to the members, and welcomed the use of it for intimate concerts.
Dr Minor Markle’s funeral was held at Piddington’s crematorium chapel on Friday 3 June, at 3pm.
1 June 2016
I have just discovered this sad news (October 2016) – Minor was a regular visitor to Sydney when I first met him – he had external students that he would visit in Sydney to teach – then and for many years following he stayed at my BnB until travel became a burden – On several occasions I visited Armidale to stay at his remarkable home where he would host magnificent Thanksgiving Dinner parties – I miss our shared interest in antique collecting
Hi, Phillip,
I was taught by Minor at UNE for my undergraduate and post graduate degrees. While I was in Armidale, over 6 years, I actually helped him build his beautiful house. I was proud of his efforts and mine too. He could have been on Grand designs easily because of not just his desire to do things practically but also to learn about how others from different social classes would have to do things. He was from his social class but could easily relate to others. He told me once that the security person at the Museum of Thessaloniki where he worked always said his heart was on the left but his pocket on the right, but in my experience that was not quite right because he could be immensely generous.
I was working in Sydney in 2006 and came to see him and he was actually staying in your BnB, so, I think I have met you. It has been many years since I saw Minor but he was a wonderful, caring person, and I thank you for saying such kind words about him, because that was my experience with him too.
Kind regards,
Shane Pearce,
I only just discovered the obit about Minor after asking myself for some years what had become of him. Minor and I met a Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1957 and maintained a close friendship until I left for Moscow as a news correspondent in 1981. I was well aware of his personal problems when he failed to get tenure at the University of Virginia and his long struggle to continue his academic career. Belated thanks to the University of New England for hiring Minor and allowing him to continue his academic life. It is a sad day to learn of Minor’s passing and I note that some of our other friends from those Oxford years are also checking out.