Yuri K. Shcheglov

Madison - Yuri K. Shcheglov   passed away Monday, April 6, 2009, at his   Madison residence. Born in Moscow on January 26, 1937, Yuri was an internationally renowned linguist and scholar of literature and culture, especially Russian. He began his career in the former Soviet Union, completing his M.A. (1959) and Ph.D. (1966) at Moscow University and occupying various academic posts, including Junior Research Fellow at the Laboratory of Applied Linguistics and Machine Translation (1959-64), Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in Hausa at the Institute of Oriental Languages (1962-78), and Senior Research Fellow at the Gorky Institute of World Literature, before emigrating to Canada in November 1979.   Following emigration Yuri taught as a full professor first at the University of Montreal, in the Department of Ancient and Modern Studies (1980-89), and then, from 1989 until his retirement in 2007, in the Department of Slavic Languages at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition, he was often invited to teach summer courses at places like the University of Urbino (International Center for Semiotics and Linguistics, 1982) and Norwich University (The Russian School, 1987-92), in Vermont. It would be no exaggeration to say that Yuri, while always modest and self-effacing, was a genuine version of the oft-mentioned but rarely observed Renaissance Man': he knew and practiced with fluency many languages, including Russian, English, classical Greek and Latin, French, German, Italian, Swedish, Old Icelandic, and Hausa (this latter on the grammatical structures of which he defended his Ph.D. thesis).   Likewise, if asked, he could move effortlessly from questions of history to culture to philosophy. His memory was amazing. During his two decades in Madison, Yuri stood out among his colleagues for his steady competence as teacher and mentor and for the astonishing breadth and variety of his course offerings; his students remember him for his high academic standards (in an age of grade inflation and intellectual hyperbole) and for his soft-spoken manner and gentle humor. The author of many books and articles and a masterful conceptual thinker, Yuri is probably best known outside of Madison for his lovingly detailed commentaries (now having appeared in several editions) on the famous Soviet humorists Ilf and Petrov. Yuri loved classical music, collected books, traveled whenever he could, especially in the summers and most often to favorite spots in Europe, and always kept a soft spot for four-legged creatures, including his two dogs Timur and Nazar. Yuri is survived by his beloved wife of forty-five years Valeria.   A Memorial Gathering   will be held Monday, April 13, 2009 from 5:00 to 7:00 PM at CRESS FUNERAL HOME, 6021 University Ave., Madison, WI.