Miriam J. Benkovitz
Miriam J. Benkovitz,professor emerita of English for 30 years, died June 12, 1986, following a long illness. She was 74.
A noted author, exhaustive researcher and demanding teacher, Miriam was a member of Skidmore’s faculty from 1947 until her retirement in 1977. Honored in 1975 as an Outstanding Educator in America, she also received international acclaim for her biographies of Ronald Firbank, Frederic Rolfe (the self-styled “Baron Carvo”) and Aubrey Beardsley. She also published Bibliography of Ronald Firbank and was a contributor to such publications as Folklore, New Directions and Saturday Review.
In 1958 her faculty colleagues named her as Faculty Research Lecturer, and in 1985 Skidmore College awarded her an honorary doctorate of letters in recognition of her decades of dedication to teaching and “in celebration of work well and truly completed.”