William Kelly Simpson

Professor of Egyptology and Near Eastern Language, Civilization and Literature 

Kelly Simpson, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. Yale, faculty member at Yale since 1958: Half a century ago, you received Yale’s first doctorate in Egyptology. Since then, you have made Yale one of the world’s leading centers for the study of the art, archaeology, language, literature, and civilizations of ancient Egypt. In twenty major books, and more than 150 scholarly articles, you have shown yourself one of the leading Egyptologists of our era. The tombs and inscriptions from Giza would never have seen the light of day if had not been for your energy. You were one of the first to see the importance of Nubian archaeology. Your standard history of Egypt and anthology of Egyptian literature have themselves become classics. 

In addition to this, your forty-seven years of teaching, museum, and field-work leave a legacy few among the pharaohs of your predecessors have equaled. You were simultaneously curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Professor at Yale, all the while teaching and directing the dissertations of the next generation of Egyptologists. Beautiful objects you have given to galleries and museums grace more than one gallery, including Yale’s own. Your colleagues attest that your philology has been exact, your field methods exemplary, your historical sense broad but disciplined, and your artistic sense unerring. Your astonishing productivity and dedication to your profession give the complete lie to that smug old Egyptian scholar who wrote, “Be a scribe. It saves you from toil and protects you from all manner of work.”