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Dr John Hind
JOHN Hind, who has died aged 71, was a leading authority on the history of Greek colonisation and trading in the Black Sea region.
Winning a scholarship from Manchester Grammar School to read Classics at St John's College, Cambridge, he first completed his National Service; it was during this time that he acquired the fluency in Russian which was later to stand him in such good stead.
Having graduated in 1961, he began research on the archaeology and early history of the Greek cities in the Black Sea region, and was awarded his PhD in 1971. By that time, he was already well-established in his academic career. He was Lecturer in Classics at the University of Otago, New Zealand, from 1965 to 1970, and Senior Lecturer there from 1971 to 1972.
While at Otago, Dr Hind also oversaw the university's coin collection and, in 1970, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Numismatic Society.
Dr Hind was appointed Lecturer in the School of History at Leeds in 1974. For many years, he and Professor Mattingly constituted the Ancient History section of the School.
Dr Hind was a dedicated and very effective teacher, whose courses spanned a remarkably broad period, ranging from Early Greece to Dark Age Britain.
He devoted a great deal of care to his students, tailoring his approach to their needs and abilities. From his base in the School of History, he taught students from across the faculty, and the popularity of his courses bore eloquent testimony to the lengths to which he went to catch his students' interest.
The versatility displayed by John Hind as a teacher found an echo in his research and scholarship. Equally well versed in classical literature, archaeology and culture, and in ancient history, he published extensively in the key journals, and, through the quality and range of his publications, made an outstanding contribution to his field. Greek colonisation and trading in the Black Sea region, the subject of his doctoral research, remained a central interest, as shown by several of his articles and many reviews, and by his being commissioned to produce, in 1984, a comprehensive archaeological survey of this topic.
Full of informed comments and insights, the latter proved to be much more than a digest of 20 years of archaeological studies. Dr Hind's fluency in Russian during his National Service days proved a significant asset, by giving him ready access to the very considerable body of work on ancient history and archaeology emanating from Russia and other Slav-speaking countries.
He was regularly invited to attend and address international congresses on Black Sea studies in countries including Bulgaria, Romania and Russia.
Dr Hind wrote with equal authority and grasp on a variety of other topics, including the early Roman Empire, the interpretation of mythological scenes in ancient art and the place-names and topography of Roman Britain.
He was also a major contributor to the Cambridge Ancient History.
Prominent in the organisation of the annual programme of Northern Universities Ancient History Seminars, Dr Hind also did much to support his discipline at school level.
He served for a number of years as the JMB's Chief Examiner for A-level Ancient History and Ancient History and Literature, and was a regular speaker at sixth-form conferences.
Dr Hind retired from his university post in August 2001, having contributed much to the School of History, its students and the university, and to the general promotion of his subject.
He is survived by his wife, Ruth, son Nicholas and daughter Helen, and grandchildren.
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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