Philip Metzidakis; taught Spanish at Swarthmore

Philip Metzidakis, 79, a Spanish-language and literature teacher at Swarthmore College from 1968 until he retired in 1995, died of complications from a fall on Monday, Nov. 8, at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Md.

Born in Springfield, Mass., he graduated from the former Classical High School there in 1949 and earned a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College in 1953 and a doctorate from Yale University in 1960, both in Spanish literature.

His daughter, Penelope Barnett, said he often recalled that at Dartmouth, "there was a teacher who really turned him on to Spanish."

He had gone to Dartmouth on a football scholarship, after being named to the All-Western Massachusetts high school team as a tackle.

"But in his freshman year, early in the season at West Point," his daughter said, he was injured so severely that for the rest of his life "his knees were very bad."

He lost his Dartmouth scholarship, she said, but continued his studies.

In the 1954-55 academic year, she said, he earned advanced degrees in Romance studies and philology at the University of Salamanca in Spain.

Dr. Metzidakis began his career at Mills College in Oakland, Calif., where he taught from 1960 to 1968.

After moving to Swarthmore College in that year, his daughter said, for 10 summers he also taught Spanish literature to graduate students at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.

As the son of Cretan immigrants, he was fluent in modern Greek as well as a scholar of Latin and ancient Greek.

He taught neither Latin nor Greek, his daughter said, but "studied a lot of Latin. Ancient Greek came later. He took classes in it at Swarthmore toward the end of his teaching there. It was a lifelong interest of his to master ancient Greek."

Dr. Metzidakis cotranslated the 1974 novel En Este Lugar Sagrado (In This Sacred Place) by the Chilean author Poli Delano.

In addition to his daughter, Dr. Metzidakis is survived by a son, Philip; a brother; and three grandsons. His wife of 50 years, Pauline, died in 2005.

A memorial is planned for an undetermined January date at Swarthmore College.