- May 20, 2004
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Texas A&M Shipwreck archaeologist passing
J. Richard Steffy, an electrical contractor who became a self-taught expert on ancient ships and a professor at Texas A&M, has died at 83.
His daughter-in-law, Jennifer Steffy, told The New York Times that Steffy died of chronic pulmonary disorder on Thursday in Bryan, Texas.
Steffy gave up his family contracting business in a Philadelphia suburb at the age of 48 to pursue his passion, reconstructing ancient ships. He founded the Institute of Nautical Archaeology with George Bass and Michael Katzev, both marine archaeologists.
During the next few decades, he studied wrecks that ranged from ancient Roman ships to a British warship that had been sunk in the York River in Virginia. In 1992, he examined an ancient vessel found in the Sea of Galilee.
"He reads wood like you read a newspaper," Shelley Wachsmann, an Israeli government archaeologist, said at the time. "He almost gets into the mind of the builder."
Steffy was the author of "Wooden Ship Building and the Interpretation of Shipwrecks," published in 1994. In 1985, he was awarded a MacArthur "genius" grant.
J. Richard Steffy, an electrical contractor who became a self-taught expert on ancient ships and a professor at Texas A&M, has died at 83.
His daughter-in-law, Jennifer Steffy, told The New York Times that Steffy died of chronic pulmonary disorder on Thursday in Bryan, Texas.
Steffy gave up his family contracting business in a Philadelphia suburb at the age of 48 to pursue his passion, reconstructing ancient ships. He founded the Institute of Nautical Archaeology with George Bass and Michael Katzev, both marine archaeologists.
During the next few decades, he studied wrecks that ranged from ancient Roman ships to a British warship that had been sunk in the York River in Virginia. In 1992, he examined an ancient vessel found in the Sea of Galilee.
"He reads wood like you read a newspaper," Shelley Wachsmann, an Israeli government archaeologist, said at the time. "He almost gets into the mind of the builder."
Steffy was the author of "Wooden Ship Building and the Interpretation of Shipwrecks," published in 1994. In 1985, he was awarded a MacArthur "genius" grant.
