Pfeiffer Named To Hancock Chair

Robert H. Pfeiffer, Curator of the Semitic Museum and lecturer in Semitic Languages, was named yesterday to the Hancock Professorship of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages. The appointment was announced by Paul H. Buck, Provost of the University.

Pfeiffer directed the 1928-29 excavations at Nuzi, Iraq, conducted by the Harvard-Baghdad School. A noted Biblical scholar, he was pastor of the Methodist Church in Sanborn, N.Y., from 1916 to 1919 and editor of the Journal of Biblical Literature from 1943 to 1947. In 1950 he served as president of the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis.

The new Hancock Professor received his M.A. at Harvard in 1920, his Ph.D. in 1922, and his S.T.M. in 1923. Joining the faculty in 1922 as instructor, he became an assistant professor in 1930, and was named lecturer in Semitic Languages in 1936. He has been Curator of the Semitic Museum since 1931.

The Hancock Professorship is the third oldest endowed professorship in the University.