REV. DR. GEORGE LANDES SR.
1928-2016
The Rev. Dr. George M. Landes, Sr., 87, passed away in Allentown, PA, on Thursday, April 7, 2016. At the time of his death, George Landes was an Honorary Member of ASOR’s Board of Trustees, a position he had held since 1995.
Prior to becoming an Honorary Trustee in 1995, George Landes had served the ASOR Board long and well, in many different capacities. He joined the Board as an Associate Trustee in 1969, and shortly thereafter, in 1971, he became a member of the Amman Committee. Most notably, in 1972, he assumed the office of the Secretary of the Board, a position he held for an astonishing twenty-two years.
George Landes began his work in archaeology in 1962, when he joined the Drew-McCormick expedition to Tel Balata (Shechem). Later, he served as Field Supervisor on the expedition to Araq el-Emir in Jordan. In 1967-68, he was appointed Annual Professor of what is now the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem. During that year he was Archaeological Director at Suwanneteth-Thaniya in the Jordan Valley and did site survey work in the area of ancient Shechem.
In addition to works renowned by biblical scholars, A Student’s Vocabulary of Biblical Hebrew (originally published by Scribner’s in 1961) and Building Your Biblical Hebrew Vocabulary (published by the Society of Biblical Literature in 2001), ASOR members will remember George Landes as the editor of BASOR Supplement 21, Report on Archaeological Work at Ṣuwwānet eth-Thanīya, Tananir, and Khirbet Minḥa (Munḥata), published in 1975, and as the recipient of a Festschrift volume in his honor, On the Way to Nineveh, edited by Stephen L. Cook and S. C. Winter and published as ASOR Books 4 in 1999.
ASOR also remembers George Landes as a generous donor, a regular “sponsor” in our annual Honor Roll of Donors.
ASOR extends its deepest sympathies to George’s wife Carol and to all the other members of the Landes family.
To read a remembrance of George Landes written by Ted Campbell, click here.
To read the obituary posted on Legacy.com, click here.
