Jim Doidge was an accomplished physicist who was working toward a Ph.D. at the UA when, he claimed, he could no longer "ignore the beauty of Greek and Latin."
Until he studied Classics, he "did not believe anything could be as beautiful as Math." He left his Ph.D. work in Physics with all but the dissertation completed after a stellar graduate career serving as a consultant for NASA, because he felt that it was only through ancient literary texts that he could be creative. He studied Greek and Latin in the UA Classics Department and spent several years of his long battle with four different types of cancer reading and discussing ancient texts. His last wish was for his partner Lee Thorn to establish scholarships in Greek and Latin in his name. "Scholarship," he told Lee, "is noble in itself." Thanks to the generosity of Jim and Lee, Jim Doidge scholarships in Greek and Latin were established in the summer of 2009 and were first awarded in the spring of 2010. Donations to this fund can be made at give.uafoundation.org/jimdoidge.
Jim Doidge Greek Award Winners
- 2023: Jackson Abhau and Austin Richards
- 2022: JuliAnne Rach and Alex Kiprof
- 2021: Zachary Feldcamp and Rosa Myers
- 2020: Elise Larres
- 2019: Julia Pare
- 2018: Angel Bustamante
- 2017: Duo Xu
- 2016: James Geach and Elizabeth Harvey
- 2015: James Geach
- 2014: Lucca Green
- 2013: Álvaro Pires
- 2012: Chad Carver
- 2011: Drew Stimson
- 2010: Luke Patient
Jim Doidge Latin Award Winners
- 2023: Thomas McMath and Rebecca Sanders
- 2022: Thomas McMath
- 2021: Zachary Feldcamp and Rosa Myers
- 2020: Elise Larres and Jordan Swanson
- 2019: Nicholas Nelson
- 2018: Angel Bustamante and Daniel Ruprecht
- 2017: Meaghan Nielsen
- 2016: Elizabeth Harvey
- 2015: Jesse Munoz
- 2014: Edward Heffernan
- 2013: Evelyn Rick
- 2012: Boris Shoshitaishvili
- 2011: David Wright
- 2010: Jared Copeland