John D'Arms

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John Haughton D'Arms (November 27, 1934 - January 22, 2002) was the Gerald F. Else Professor of Humanities and professor of classical studies and history at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He also served as president of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS). He served ACLS until his death in 2002.

A University of Michigan faculty member beginning in 1965, D'Arms served as chair of the Department of Classical Studies for nine years, and was named the Gerald F. Else Professor in 1983. He received Michigan's Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award in 1982 and was also named professor of history in 1986. D'Arms was appointed as dean of the graduate school in 1985 and he also served as vice provost for academic affairs in 1990-95. In 1977-80, he was director of the American Academy in Rome and the A.W. Mellon Professor in its School of Classical Studies. D'Arms was a spokesman for the humanities at a national level, as a former member of the Board of Directors of the ACLS, trustee of the National Humanities Center, trustee emeritus of the American Academy in Rome, and member of the national Committee for Mellon Fellowships in the Humanities. President Bill Clinton appointed D'Arms to the National Council for the Humanities in 1994.

Born in Poughkeepsie, New York, D'Arms was married to Maria Teresa Waugh, daughter of novelist Evelyn Waugh, in 1961 in Somerset, England. He received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University in 1956 and in 1959 received a B.A. degree in Litterae Humaniores from New College, Oxford. D'Arms went on to complete a Ph.D. in classical philology at Harvard University in 1965 with a dissertation entitled Republican Roman Villas in Coastal Campania.

D'Arms's scholarly work focused on aspects of ancient Roman cities, culture and society. His works include Romans on the Bay of Naples (1970), Commerce and Social Standing in Ancient Rome (1981), and more than sixty scholarly articles and reviews. At the time of his death, he was working on a study of the social and cultural conventions concerning food and drink in Roman society.

Among his students was the historian John Bodel, now on the faculty of Brown University.