David L. Minter, former dean of Emory College and vice president of the college of arts and sciences, died Aug. 21 at his Houston residence. He was 82 years old.
Under Minter’s leadership, some of the most pivotal programs to Emory were spearheaded, and those programs are still a hallmark of the college today.
University Historian and Senior Adviser to the President Gary Hauk wrote in a Sept. 12 email to the Wheel, “Theater Emory, the Department of Theater and Film Studies, the Women’s Studies Department, and programs in Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Russian and East European Studies and African Studies [all began] under his leadership.”
He also started Freshman Advising and Mentoring at Emory (FAME), a predecessor to Pre-Major Advising Connections at Emory (PACE). He helped launch the Emory Scholars program, including the first Robert W. Woodruff Scholars and recommended the appointment of the first Woodruff professor, Richard Ellmann, for whom the internationally renowned Ellmann Lectures are named.
The former College dean was “a formidable champion of the arts and sciences, who always fought to put the liberal arts on equal footing with the health sciences and the professional schools,” Hauk said.
Graduating high school in 1953, his love for reading books carried him to North Texas State, where he earned a bachelor’s and master’s in English. Soon after, Minter went on to attend Yale University (Conn.) where he earned a Bachelor of Divinity and a doctorate in American Studies, according to a Rice University press release.
Minter began his academic career as a lecturer at Yale and then at Hamburg University in Germany. In 1967, he joined the English Department at Rice University. Two years later, he was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship.
In 1973, Minter and his wife became magisters at Baker College at Rice and served for the next six years. He soon was promoted to professor and later became chair of the English department.
Taking a leave from Rice, Minter went on to live in Cambridge, England for eight months, where he wrote his second and most successful book, “William Faulkner: His Life and Work.”
In 1981, Minter was appointed by former president James T. Laney as dean of Emory College, where he oversaw faculty hiring, student admission policies and program development.
In a Sept. 23 email to the Wheel, Minter’s wife Caroline Minter stated that “I know that David loved being at Emory. President Laney encouraged him to leave Rice for Emory, and they became close friends.”
“He was a person of deep intelligence, so he was known to question everyone and every idea—even his own. He was also a person of strong convictions about the necessary elements required to establish an outstanding college,” said Rosemary Magee in a Sept. 11 email to the Wheel. Magee was hired by Minter as Assistant Dean for Emory College in 1983, and who now serves as Director of the Stuart A. Rose Library.
Minter was later appointed to a second position as vice president of arts and sciences. As a well-respected William Faulkner scholar, he never relented his love for teaching. Magee recalls that “he spoke with a lot of praise for teachers, as his mother and additional members of the family had been teachers and taught him the joy of learning and books from a young age.”
In an interview with Rice University in 2002 regarding his administrative role at Emory, Minter said: “I loved it, it was a great job.”
As an administrator and teacher, Minter was known for always listening to others, which gave way to the legacy he created years after his departure from Emory.
Magee reflected on a time when Minter showed his true character: his curiosity and willingness to hear out others. According to Magee, these qualities made him the great leader he was.
“Once, when he asked for my opinion on a matter… he wrote it down, and later referenced it as my idea. I saw him do this time and time again for others; he was extremely curious,” Magee said. “I observed him mentoring other colleagues of mine, who later made their own significant contributions to Emory and elsewhere.”
His wife, Caroline Minter, recalled that, “after a decade at Emory, David felt a desire to return to teaching, and I believe that he felt it would be difficult to teach there after having been dean.”
In 1990, the Minters returned to Rice as the Libbie Shearn Moody Professor of English, where he completed two books: “A Cultural History of the American Novel” and “Faulkner’s Questioning Narratives.”
“Through it all, though, I remember him most vividly as a smiling, gracious and warm human being who connected with people.”
In one of her last memories of her husband, Caroline Minter said, “I heard him making some sounds—not real words. I asked him if he wanted to say something. He replied, ‘yes, I love you.’”
His son, Chris Minter, remembers his father as a “courageous” and “kind” person.
“He took genuine pleasure in seeing people succeed by learning to trust themselves and their own sense of what was right,” Minter wrote in a Sept. 28 email to the Wheel.
Minter remembered his father as a lover of André Gide, a French novelist. According to his son, one of his father’s favorite quotes was: “It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.”
Minter and his twin sister, Judith, were the fifth and sixth children of the Reverend Kenneth Minter and his wife, Frances Minter, a former school teacher.
He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Caroline Minter; his son, Chris Minter; daughter, Frances Epstein and son-in-law Jeff Epstein; and two grandsons, Aiden and Seaton Epstein.
Former Editor-in-Chief | Madison Bober (20C) is from Hollywood, Florida. She majored in political science and minored in women’s, gender and sexuality studies.
