DOI Artikel:
Szafrański, Zbigniew Eugeniusz; Murnane, William J. [Gefeierte Pers.]: William J. Murnane: 1945-2000
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41369#0012
OBITUARY
From 1987 he was Professor of History at the University of Memphis and Associate Professor at
the University's Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology. He devoted much of his time to students
and to study programs and didactics. I benefited from his comments when preparing the program of
studies for the Archaeology of Egypt Department that was created at Warsaw University in the early
1990s.
His lectures were always clear and interesting, always attended by crowds of listeners. [At one of
the congresses a speaker addressed his very modest audience in the following words: “...I am grateful
to all of you — except for the President of the session and the person in charge of showing the slides —
for attending my lecture instead of the one that Bill Murnane is giving next door”.) Murnane also
wrote “United with Eternity: A Concise Guide to the Monuments of Medinet Habu” (1980) and
“The Penguin Guide to Ancient Egypt” (1983), two absolutely scholarly works that are equally
interesting to the common man.
In 1990 Murnane formed the Great Hypostyle Hall Project of the University of Memphis.
In the early spring of2000 we met again in Thebes, in the library of Chicago House in Luxor.
(The photo shows him during his last visit to Metropolitan House in Deir el-Bahari on March 17,
2000.) We looked at one another and Bill pronounced: “The mission director never sleeps!” He was
like that. Indefatigable, he worked hard and with a hungry passion. The quiet of the library was
usually broken with the machine-gun staccato of the keys on his computer laptop.
The news of his sudden death in November 2000 came as a shock. A friend had passed away,
an erudite and a scholar, a great fan of Italian and Spanish opera (he grew up in Venezuela, where
his parents were stationed). His passing is a much regretted loss for Egyptology.
It is still hard to believe that he is gone — after all, it is he who used to say: “The mission direc-
tor mission never sleeps!”
Zbigniew E. Szafrahski
10
From 1987 he was Professor of History at the University of Memphis and Associate Professor at
the University's Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology. He devoted much of his time to students
and to study programs and didactics. I benefited from his comments when preparing the program of
studies for the Archaeology of Egypt Department that was created at Warsaw University in the early
1990s.
His lectures were always clear and interesting, always attended by crowds of listeners. [At one of
the congresses a speaker addressed his very modest audience in the following words: “...I am grateful
to all of you — except for the President of the session and the person in charge of showing the slides —
for attending my lecture instead of the one that Bill Murnane is giving next door”.) Murnane also
wrote “United with Eternity: A Concise Guide to the Monuments of Medinet Habu” (1980) and
“The Penguin Guide to Ancient Egypt” (1983), two absolutely scholarly works that are equally
interesting to the common man.
In 1990 Murnane formed the Great Hypostyle Hall Project of the University of Memphis.
In the early spring of2000 we met again in Thebes, in the library of Chicago House in Luxor.
(The photo shows him during his last visit to Metropolitan House in Deir el-Bahari on March 17,
2000.) We looked at one another and Bill pronounced: “The mission director never sleeps!” He was
like that. Indefatigable, he worked hard and with a hungry passion. The quiet of the library was
usually broken with the machine-gun staccato of the keys on his computer laptop.
The news of his sudden death in November 2000 came as a shock. A friend had passed away,
an erudite and a scholar, a great fan of Italian and Spanish opera (he grew up in Venezuela, where
his parents were stationed). His passing is a much regretted loss for Egyptology.
It is still hard to believe that he is gone — after all, it is he who used to say: “The mission direc-
tor mission never sleeps!”
Zbigniew E. Szafrahski
10