REMEMBERING REV. DR. GEORGE LANDES SR.
by Edward F. Campbell, Jr.
The passing of George Landes on April 7, 2016, has opened a whole range of memories and nostalgia among those who worked with him, respected him, and grew fond of him through his fruitful career with ASOR and as a seminary professor of biblical exegesis. George was part of the flock of graduates from McCormick Theological Seminary, students during the era of Ovid 鈥淪andy鈥 Sellers, G. Ernest Wright, and Frank M. Cross. That meant falling under the spell of W. F. Albright. He was enthralled with Old Testament studies at the time when it was appropriately enwrapped with historical, philological, and archaeological trajectories. McCormick, like other seminaries, was something like a 鈥淭riple-A鈥 farm club; Orval Wintermute, Gus van Beek, George and then a stream of Sinclairs, Bolings, Campbells, Renn (Nancy Lapp), Huffmons and more took the Chicago tunnel to Baltimore. All of them stayed committed to the pertinence of Ancient Near Eastern studies to biblical interpretation — one of the streams that flows through ASOR鈥檚 circulation system to this day.
George Landes was from Missouri, armed with a Phi Beta Kappa philosophy degree from the University of Missouri. So was Carol, his beloved wife of 62+ years. He came to McCormick and fell in love with the OT, took the prize there in OT studies that projected him to Johns Hopkins (B.D in 1952; PhD in 1956) and became professor across 1956 to 1995 at Union Seminary in New York. He remained a Hebrew and Exegesis teacher throughout his life. And he stayed close to his commitment to the ministry of the Presbyterian Church (USA) on through retirement, where fine exegesis and interpretation were hallmarks. An important tool in this connection was a presentation of Hebrew vocabulary that is still used widely, a frequency catalogue of Hebrew roots and derivatives which has had a second and even more useful appearance as 鈥淏uilding Your Hebrew Vocabulary: Learning Words by Frequency and Cognate.鈥 His focus was on the book of Jonah. He wrote a host of entries in biblical resource volumes; he reviewed publications in over a dozen journals; he was on the translation team of the NRSV.
The combination of all things Albrightian stayed with George. In 1962 when GEW was leading the Joint (nee Drew-McCormick) Expedition to Shechem, George and Carol signed on for the summer season; then George stayed as honorary associate and 鈥淪hechem Fellow鈥 that fall. That plunged him into work on Shechem ceramics and also put him on the staff of the Araq el-Emir expedition with Paul Lapp. Then in 1967-8, he and Carol came back to Jerusalem as Annual Professor of ASOR. He led an excavation at Suwannet eth-Thaniya in the Jordan valley, publishing his report in BASOR Supplemental Studies 21 in 1975, part of a volume of which he was editor. He completed his part in the Shechem work that year by exploring sites we had missed on the regional survey conducted in 1964-1968.
There is one never-to-be forgotten role the Landeses played at Shechem. I鈥檒l crib my description of it from my tribute to George in his Festschrift, On the Way to Nineveh (1999): Carol singing the role of Miss Katherine Kanyon to Carl Dresser鈥檚 Hartley Evers Wrong in the opera that decorated the season-ending party, a composition by Delbert Hillers. If memory serves George was part of the balk that separated Primus and Thistlebe, two rookies on the dig staff. George, ever cooperative, did his part as a balk with enthusiasm and without fanfare 鈥 that was his life-style.
For ASOR, all (!) George did was to serve as Board secretary for 22 years. His reports were clear, fun-loving and precise. George simply fit in where he was needed, and he didn鈥檛 seem to crave notice. He made an immense contribution by doing what was called for. Farewell, George; go with God.
by Edward F. Campbell, Jr.
July 3, 2016