Classics and Letters library to honor late professor

A beloved University of Oklahoma teacher and professor of Classics and Letters is being memorialized with a library space that will share his extensive literature collection with the public.

Dr. J. Rufus Fears was an OU Department of Classics and Letters faculty member from 1990 until his 2012 death. He taught some of the university’s most popular courses during that time and earned three OU Professor of the Year honors from his students.

“I met him as an undergraduate, and he taught these courses called Freedom in Greece and Freedom in Rome that were in the biggest lecture hall on campus in Nielsen,” said Kyle Harper, G.T. and Libby Blankenship Chair in the History of Liberty and Professor of Classics and Letters at OU. “They were limited by the number of seats in the room — people would sit in the aisles trying to get permission. The demand to be in those classes was really amazing. He was a very charismatic lecturer and really brought history to life. He just had an amazing gift.”

Harper is one of thousands of students influenced by Fears’ dynamic teaching abilities — today, he holds the same chair Fears once did, uses Fears’ former office and works in Roman and historical studies.

Fears’ memory, kept alive for a decade by the people he taught, will now be honored with a library in his name on the first floor of the Carnegie Building, home to the Classics and Letters department. While the department plans to grow the library, it will start with Fears’ personal literary collection of 5,000 to 6,000 books, which were donated to the university by his widow.

Plans for the library have come together at just the right time. University Libraries received Fears’ massive collection and recently allowed Classics and Letters to become the home to the 100-plus boxes of books.

The collection will point toward subject matters like constitutional studies, the history of liberty and more that were not only scholarly passions of Fears’, but current areas of focus for Classics and Letters.

“The goal is to make it a really nation-leading research collection for the faculty and the students that covers classics and the history of liberty, ideas that Rufus Fears was interested in, as well as core competencies of our department,” department chair Scott Johnson said.

The department has grown significantly over the past few years, Johnson said, and is heavily focused on constitutional studies and archaeology. Fears’ interests and collection happen to feed into the continued success of the department where he left an indelible mark.

“This library is part of a department that really is in a kind of golden age,” Harper said.

In spring 2022, Johnson happened to connect with Classics and Letters alumna Susan Grossman, who now works as senior program officer with the Kirkpatrick Foundation. Over coffee, Grossman was inspired by the idea of a Fears library, a proposal the department had put on its wish list.

“What an unexpected yet affirming moment it was when the concept for the Rufus Fears Library was presented to Kirkpatrick Foundation. I knew the originality of the concept fit the incredible vision, impact and philanthropy that originates from this office,” said Grossman, whose daughter is also a Classics and Letters alumna. “The small but mighty Classics and Letters Department for years has produced hundreds of thoughtful, educated graduates, making the opportunity to shepherd this library grant for the benefit of students and faculty, and in honor of Dr. Fear’s legacy, especially meaningful.”

The Kirkpatrick Foundation awarded the department a $100,000 grant for the library, a gift that will not only help construct the space and preserve Fears’ collection but will also fund future additions to the collection.

“With the arrival of Susan Grossman at the Kirkpatrick Foundation, we decided to take a long look at the literary and classics opportunities at OU,” said Louisa McCune, the foundation’s executive director. “We landed upon the Rufus Fears Collection. This investment helps ensure that Oklahoma’s future leaders have a strong intellectual foundation in a global, historical context. Dr. Fears was a legend whose influence expanded far beyond the classroom, and we are proud to be associated with his legacy. Rufus was also a close friend of our longtime trustee Max Weitzenhoffer, which makes this gift even more special.”

The library will be open to the entire OU community during Carnegie’s open hours; keeping the space public is important for both the department and the Kirkpatrick Foundation.

A library space will be a fitting tribute to Fears not only in subject matter and location, but in its very makeup.

“He actually inherited the core of this library from his teacher at Harvard, so this is really a library that was built over generations by some of the most eminent classical scholars in the world,” Harper said.

The department aims to have the library completed by next fall, in time for an event centered on the eleventh anniversary of Fears’ death.