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Alfred Moritz The Times (London) February 20, 2003, Thursday
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The Times (London)
February 20, 2003, Thursday
Alfred Moritz
Alfred Moritz, former professor of classics at the University College Cardiff, was born on May 11, 1921.
He died on January 7, 2003, aged 81.
Alfred Moritz was born in Munich; his father was a judge who lost his job in 1933 after the Nazis came to
power. Moritz was educated at the Maxgymnasium in Munich until 1937 when, barely able to speak a word
of English, he was sent to England by his parents and secured a scholarship at St Paul's School, London.
In 1939 he was awarded a scholarship to Merton College, Oxford, where he read Greats until his studies
were interrupted by the outbreak of war. After his release from internment in 1941 he was permitted to engage only in factory and agricultural work because of his German passport and status as a registered alien.
He completed his undergraduate studies at Oxford in 1947.
During the first half of his career he taught Latin, Greek and ancient history at Merton, Bedford College,
London, the University of Ghana and University College, Cardiff. He was appointed to the Chair of Latin in
Cardiff in 1961 and occupied the Chair of Classics from 1967 to 1979.
His scholarly interests were wide and varied. His Oxford doctoral thesis, later published by the Oxford University Press as Grain-Mills and Flour in Classical Antiquity, remains the standard text on the milling implements and equipment of Greece and Rome and argues that the invention of the rotary mill -one of the two
fundamental technology changes in the production of grain -occurred much later than had been previously
supposed.
Moritz had a great interest in Greek philosophy but his main love was Latin poetry and he was an authority
on Horace, about whom he published a variety of papers. He was a staunch supporter of Latin prose composition as an academic and pedagogic skill and was much in demand as an adjudicator of Latin reading competitions, which were then a regular part of Latin teaching in schools. He took a leading role in the work of
the Classical Association.
Moritz was seconded to university administration in 1971 and in 1975 he became Registrar of University
College Cardiff -a position he held concurrently with the post of Vice-Principal Administration.
Among the projects he brought to fruition with the university's Principal, C. W.
L. Bevan, was a new general library and the university's Sherman Theatre, which has become a home for
drama in Wales. Moritz continued in his administrative role until his retirement in 1987 and the merger between University College Cardiff and the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology.
LOAD-DATE: February 20, 2003
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
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