Robert Sonkowsky, PhD

Robert Sonkowsky (1931-2014) served as a professor of Classical and Near Eastern Studies at the University of Minnesota. Sonkowsky received his bachelor's degree from Lawrence College and his PhD from the University of North Carolina. He was an authority on Latin rhetoric and the pronunciation of Golden Age Latin. He was an honorary member of the Center for Chronobiology in the Mayo Building, Medical School. Sonkowsky was recognized as a leading authority on and a performer of oral renditions of classical texts. He made the album Homer: The Death of Patroclus - Chapter XVI of the Iliad with Folkways Records as part of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. Numerous other recordings of his in classical Greek and Latin are available on the Internet. Sonkowsky is the author of Latin Aloud: Audio AP® Selections from Vergil, Catullus, Ovid, Cicero, and Horace (Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 2007).