Obituaries
08/28/2025
Thomas M. Conley (1941-2025)
ISHR mourns the passing of Tom Conley, leading expert on Classical Greek and Byzantine rhetoric, and longtime member of ISHR, in Champaign, Illinois.
08/28/2025
Marjorie Curry Woods (1947-2025)
ISHR mourns the passing of Jorie Woods, leading expert on medieval rhetoric and longtime member of ISHR, at her home in Hawaii on 9 August 2025.
08/26/2025
Marjorie Curry Woods (1947-2025)
ISHR mourns the passing of Jorie Woods, leading expert on medieval rhetoric and longtime member of ISHR, at her home in Hawaii on 9 August 2025.
10/10/2023
Professor Peter Mack (1955-2023)
ISHR mourns the sudden passing of former Rhetorica editor and friend to many in the Society Peter Mack, on Thursday October 5, 2023
10/09/2023
Professor John O. Ward (1940-2023)
ISHR also notes and mourns the passing of John Ward, Emeritus Professor at the University of Sidney, who passed away in April 2023. A great scholar, John Ward was also for many years one of the most engaged and entertaining participants in ISHR’s biennial meetings, and likely the furthest travelled.
02/13/2023
ISHR Mourns the Passing of Craig Kallendorf
ISHR mourns the passing of Craig Kallendorf, a past editor of Rhetorica (1992-1997) and co-editor, with Laurent Pernot of the ISHR/Brill series International Studies in the History of Rhetoric.
01/16/2023
ISHR mourns the passing of Past President Marc van der Poel, December 18, 2022.
Please follow this link in the article to view the obituary.
09/20/2022
ISHR mourns the death of George Kennedy
ISHR mourns the death of George Kennedy, who died July 28, 2022 at the age of 94. He was a giant in the history of ancient rhetoric, and a former President of ISHR (1983-85).
01/25/2022
ISHR - Carol Poster
Carol Poster, long time member of the International Society for the History of Rhetoric, died of colon cancer at the age of 65 on October 22, 2021.
12/26/2021
ISHR - Dr. James J. Murphy
With great sadness I inform you of the passing of James J. - Jerry - Murphy in the morning of 24 December, at the age of 98. Jerry’s name is a household word for several generations of scholars in the history of rhetoric, and he was a dear friend of many of them.
01/25/2021
ISHR - Dr. Alan Rosiene
With great sadness we report that Dr. Alan Rosiene of Melbourne, Fl. passed away on January 16th 2021 after a short illness. Alan was a much esteemed professor of English and languages at the School of Arts and Communication of Florida Institute of Technology.
06/28/2020
ISHR - Professor Marc Fumaroli
With sadness I inform you that professor Marc Fumaroli, one of the founders of our Society in 1977 and President in 1985-1987, has passed away on June 24, at the age of 88. After a period at the University of Paris-IV, Sorbonne, Marc Fumaroli was elected to a chair in Rhetoric and Society in Europe at the Collège de France, a post he held from 1986 until his retirement in 2002.
08/25/2019
ISHR Mourns the loss of Dr. Christoph Leidl
06/19/2017
Dr. Jan Swearingen
Dr. Jan Swearingen of Bryan, Texas passed away early on June 1st after seven months-long battle with cancer. She had recently retired from the Texas A&M University English Department after dedicating thirty-five years to the practice and study of rhetoric.
