Eugene Mersereau Waith, Douglas Tracy Smith Professor of English at Yale University, died in New Haven on October 25, 2007.   A memorial service for him was held at Yale on January 13, 2008.

Professor Waith was a long-time supporter of ASTR, becoming a member in its earliest years, serving on its Executive Committee from 1978 to 1981, and a familiar figure at its annual meetings across its first three decades.

A specialist in the intellectual sources and generic development of early modern drama from Shakespeare through the Restoration, Professor Waith’s major works were The Pattern of Tragicomedy in Beaumont and Fletcher (1952), The Herculean Hero (1962), and Ideas of Greatness (1971).  He was a respected textual editor, producing an edition of Jonson’s Bartholomew Fair and an edition of Macbeth for the revised Yale Shakespeare (1954), and editions of Titus Andronicus and The Two Noble Kinsmen for the landmark Oxford Shakespeare. He also served for years as a general editor of the Revels Plays (Manchester University Press).

He gave sensitive and respectful attention to theatrical performance in his work, unusual in the literary studies of drama of his time.  He edited an anthology of world drama for students, The Dramatic Moment (1967), helped establish a major in theatre studies at Yale, and chaired an interdisciplinary program in history, arts and letters.   He was a regular theatregoer, always interested in new plays and new stagings of classics.  He served as a trustee for New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre.  A number of his graduate students have made major contributions to the study of early modern drama and Shakespeare in performance, including students from Yale’s doctoral program in theatre history who often elected his courses.

Professor Waith took his B.A. and his Ph.D. at Yale and taught at the university from 1939 to 1983.  His honors as a teacher included Yale’s DeVane Medal for distinguished teaching and scholarship by the Yale chapter of Phi Beta Kappa in 1984, and the Wilbur Cross Medal for distinguished achievement from the Yale Graduate Alumni Association in 1985.  James C. Bulman, Henry and Patricia Bush Tippie Professor of English at  Allegheny College said of him, "In his meticulous scholarship, unimpeachable integrity, and deep generosity to his students, Gene served as both an inspiration and a role-model.” Gail Pastor, Director the Folger Shakespeare Library, characterized him personally as “embodiment of courtliness in the highest sense of that term—gracious in bearing, innately dignified, elegant in dress … a bit formal in demeanor, and with an old-fashioned fidelity to propriety.”  Pianist David Erlich, director of the Southeast Chamber Players in Washington, D.C., remembered him especially for the lively correspondence Waith maintained with him over the years, as he did with many of his students. Gary Jay Williams, Emeritus Professor of Drama, the Catholic University of America,  remembered him for qualities that mirrored the chivalric attributes he located in figures in Renaissance drama, including courtesy, gentility, and magnanimity, as well as for his penetrating intelligence and discernment, and his dry wit.

During his service in the U.S. Army in World War II, Waith served as a counterintelligence officer in Europe.  Among his awards were an American Campaign medal, a Bronze Star, and the Croix de Guerre avec L’Etoile de Vermeil.  His wife of 48 years, Margaret Deakers Waith, died in 1987.