Introduction
Raymond P. Tripp, Jr. (1932-2005) was an English professor at the University of Denver (DU). He was a linguist and word consultant, fluent in French, German, and Japanese. Tripp was also skilled in Anglo-Saxon, German, Icelandic, Greek, and Latin.
Background
Raymond Paul Tripp, Jr
Raymond Paul Tripp, Jr. was born in Acushnet, Massachusetts on December 15, 1932. His bachelor’s and master’s degrees were both in English literature from the University of Massachusetts in 1960 and University of Toronto in 1963 respectively. He came to DU in 1968 and in 1971 received his doctorate from Union Graduate School in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was in the U.S. Army from 1954-1957. Prior to his appointment at DU Tripp was an instructor at The American School in Japan (1960), assistant instructor, University of Toronto (1962-1964), instructor, Champlain College (1964-1965), assistant professor, Clarion State College (1965-1968) and dean of studies, Mark Hopkins College (1967-1968).
Career
In 1968, the University of Denver appointed Raymond P. Tripp to the College of Arts and Sciences as a professor of English. Tripp taught courses such as bibliography, American transcendentalism, creative writing, Chaucer, and English grammar. He also directed master’s theses and doctoral dissertations. As a linguist and word consultant, Tripp produced a number of books and reviews. Some of his works include: The Ladder of Language: An Introductory Structural Grammar (1975); Beyond Canterbury: Chaucer, Humanism and Literature (1977); More About the Fight with the Dragon: Beowulf, 2208b-3182: commentary, edition and translation (1983); The Mysterious Kingdom of Emily Dickinson’s Poetry (1988); Two Fish on one Hook: A Transformative Reading of Thoreau’s Walden (1998) and Duty, Body and World in the Works of Emily Dickinson: Reorganizing the Estimate (2000).
Tripp was also a member of the Rocky Mountain Council for British Studies, the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association, the American Society for Aesthetics, the American Medieval Academy and the Society for New Language Study. Raymond Paul Tripp died in 2005.
References
Biographical Files: Raymond P. Tripp, Special Collections (Denver: University of Denver Penrose Library).
Raymond P. Tripp, Jr., WorldCat, http://www.worldcat.org (accessed July 20, 2010).