It is with great sadness that we report the passing of Francis Newton, Professor Emeritus of the Classics Department at Duke University and a member of the Comité international de paléographie latine.  Francis took his doctoral degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1954 where he studied under B.L. Ullman. He served on the faculty at Vanderbilt, the University of North Carolina, and was a visiting professor in the Classics department here at OSU in 1970.  He was a full professor at Duke University until his retirement in 1998. Francis was a distinguished scholar and one of the foremost authorities on the scriptorium at the monastery of Monte Cassino, with many books and articles to his credit, including The Scriptorium and Library at Monte Cassino, 1058-1105 and, most recently, his splendid account of medical texts at Monte Cassino, Medicine at Monte Cassino Constantine the African and the Oldest Manuscript of His Pantegni, which he co-authored with Erik Kwakkel. 

Francis was not only a great scholar but a truly kind and generous man. He was an enthusiastic supporter of the Center for Epigraphical and Palaeographical Studies, attending the symposium given in honor of Virginia Brown in 2005 and delivering the Virginia Brown Memorial Lecture at the Texts and Contexts Conference in 2014. He will be remembered by all of us here at Ohio State with great fondness and love.