26.1400, All: Obituary: Peter J. Binkert (1942-2015)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-26-1400. Fri Mar 13 2015. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 26.1400, All: Obituary: Peter J. Binkert (1942-2015)

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Date: Fri, 13 Mar 2015 12:21:27
From: Madelyn Kissock [madelyn.kissock at concordia.ca]
Subject: Obituary: Peter J. Binkert (1942-2015)

 
Peter J. Binkert, Professor of Classics and Linguistics at Oakland University,
passed away on February 10, 2015 after a courageous battle with cancer. He is
survived by his wife, Jackie, his two sons and their spouses, and 6
grandchildren.

Born in New York City and having subsequently moved to New Jersey, Peter
attended Rutgers for an undergraduate degree in Biological Studies. He then
moved to Michigan to pursue first an M.A. in Classical Studies and then a
Ph.D. in Linguistics at the University of Michigan. After receiving his Ph.D.
in 1970, he joined what was then the newly established Oakland University in
Rochester, MI and remained there for his entire academic career (43 years). 

Peter joined Oakland just as departmental status was conferred on Linguistics
-- previously only an interdisciplinary program where all faculty had primary
appointments in other fields. He was the first and for some little time, the
only, department member whose Ph.D. was in Linguistics. Peter served as chair
of the Department for 19 years. He was tireless in promoting and strengthening
the Department, integrating Linguistics into the general education curriculum,
and educating members of the community about Linguistics -- still a relatively
new field. Peter also spent considerable time on community outreach
activities, starting up an outreach program for the local Hispanic community
that focussed on ESL instruction. In tandem with this project, he created the
ESL Center at Oakland University, where students were trained and certified in
ESL pedagogy.

Peter was a motivated and enthusiastic teacher and researcher, with primary
interests falling into the area of syntax and natural language parsing. His
long-term project was developing and refining a parser and he often integrated
aspects of this project into his syntax classes. In spite of his interest in
theory, he maintained his classical roots
and was instrumental in getting Oakland to restore Latin to the list of
languages offered at the University.

We will sorely miss such a fine colleague.
 


Linguistic Field(s): Not Applicable



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