In memoriam: George deForest Lord

A memorial service will be held on Sunday, Aug. 26, for George deForest Lord, a former English literature professor at Yale and master of Trumbull College, who died on March 31 in Connecticut Hospice at the age of 92.

A memorial service will be held on Sunday, Aug. 26, for George deForest Lord, a former English literature professor at Yale and master of Trumbull College, who died on March 31 in Connecticut Hospice at the age of 92.

George deForest Lord
George deForest Lord, during his years as master of Trumbull College.

The service will take place at 3 pm. at Calvary Church in Stonington, Connecticut.

Lord was noted for his scholarship on Andrew Marvell, English satirical poetry, and the heroic epic and mock heroic epic. He served as master of Trumbull College 1963-1966 and was named the George M. Bodman Professor of English Literature in 1988.

The son of Hazen Symington Lord and George deForest Lord (a principal in the law firm Lord, Day, and Lord), he grew up in Manhattan and in Syosset, Long Island. He attended Groton School and Yale College, graduating in 1942. He fought in World War II in the South Pacific as a B-25 pilot with the Marines, flying 45 combat missions and receiving the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with four Gold Stars.

Lord earned his Ph.D. at Yale and joined the English department, attaining the rank of full professor in 1966. He taught 17th-century literature, epic, and satire, and edited the Everyman Marvell and the seven-volume “Poems on Affairs of State: Augustan Satirical Verse, 1660-1714.” His other books include “Heroic Mockery,” which explored epic themes from Homer to James Joyce.

Lord was predeceased by his wife, Marcia Babbidge Lord; siblings Edith Meyer and Edward Crary Lord; and his infant daughter, Edith. He is survived by his previous wives, Ruth DuPont Lord and Louise Hendricks Lord; his children Pauline Lord of East Lyme, Connecticut, George Lord Jr. of Athens, Georgia, and Henry Lord of New Haven; and by five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

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