University Times

Hugh Kearney, Pitt’s inaugural J. Carroll Amundson Professor of British History, died Oct. 1, 2017.

In a tribute by Kearney’s Department of History colleagues Reid Andrews and Janelle Greenberg, they noted “the history profession has lost one of its most influential and creative voices. … He was the first scholar to criticize the typical view of the British Isles as consisting only of England, ignoring the Irish, Welsh, and Scots. His ‘The British Isles, A History of Four Nations’ has been translated into many languages and sold throughout the world.”

Born in Liverpool, U.K., on Jan. 22, 1924, and educated at Cambridge, Kearney taught at universities in Dublin, Sussex and Edinburgh before coming to Pitt in the early 1970s.

His other publications included “The Origin of the Scientific Revolution” (1964), “Scholars and Gentlemen: Universities and Society in Pre-Industrial Britain” (1970), “Science and Change, 1500-1700 (1971)” and “Ireland: Contested Ideas of Nationalism and History” (2007).

Of his Pitt career, Andrews and Greenberg wrote: “He brought to the position a unique combination of extraordinary erudition … and exceptional modesty. Hugh wore his intellect and achievements humbly. His students, both graduate and undergraduate, adored him, and he was a much beloved member of the department. Hugh also possessed a wicked, but not mean, sense of humor, and he was known to start quoting poetry when faculty meetings went off the rails. He was truly a lovely man, and a model of how to be a human being.”

Following his retirement from Pitt in 1999, he and his family moved to Bury St Edmunds, in Suffolk. He is survived by his wife, Catherine (Kate) Murphy, and children, Martha, Jamie and Peter.