АРИСТЕй VI (2012) С. 278–282 PERSONALIA The Eighty-Fifth Birthday of Professor Sir John Boardman: A Personal Tribute On August 20th celebrated his 85th , 2012, Prof. <...> The magazine Apollo has described him as ‘A classical warrior… Britain’s most distinguished historian of ancient Greek art’.1 Nobody could disagree, but I would also add ‘most distinguished scholar of ancient Greek archaeology’ as well. <...> He decided to devote himself to classical archaeology, switching from Greek lyric poetry, in his second year. <...> And in his last undergraduate year, he followed the advice of Robert Cook, then Reader in Classical Archaeology, to start work on a project studying Greek vases and publish it, instead of ‘wasting time’ on a doctorate.3 (It was quite common for scholars of his generation not to undertake or complete research degrees.) Many decades later, having been awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Athens and by the Sorbonne, he joked with us, his pupils, that he now had a doctorate, just like us. <...> After three years as Assistant Director of the British School at Athens, he moved to Oxford as an Assistant Keeper in the Ashmolean Museum. <...> Sir John gives an account of his personal and academic background in Boardman J. ‘Greeks and Syria: Pots and People // G.R. Tsetskhladze and A.M. Snodgrass (eds.). <...> Greek Settlements in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea (BAR International Series 1062). <...> Журнал_6.indb 278 05.02.2013 22:00:30 PERSONALIA 279 in Classical Archaeology there, becoming Lincoln Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology in 1978, a post he held until his retirement in 1994. <...> He has long been a Fellow of the British Academy, and numerous awards, medals and honours have been bestowed upon him. <...> He has written widely about nearly every aspect of ancient Greek art and archaeology. <...> I first met Sir John in September 1987, in Georgia at an international symposium on the ancient history of the Black Sea littoral. <...> Papers on Classical Art and For a complete list of Sir John’s publications from 1952 to 1999, see ibid. <...> He was deeply touched by this, and it was <...>