Noted scholar left a legacy of words

Retired UC Irvine Professor Theodore F. “Ted” Brunner, who helped revolutionize the research of ancient Greek texts, died March 7 at his Laguna Beach home. He was 72.

Ted started the classics department at the university, but he was best known in academic circles as the founding director of the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae, the first digital library in the humanities, a project that brought international recognition to the university, according to Dean of Humanities, Karen Lawrence.

“His contribution to the university and his field cannot be overstated,” Lawrence said in a statement she released to the university and press. “We will miss him greatly.”

Ted launched the Thesaurus project as its founding director in 1972 with the goal of collecting and digitalizing all Greek texts written from antiquity through the Sixth Century. The digital library now includes 12,000 works by 3,700 authors.

It has been available online at www.tlg.uci.edu since 2001, allowing scholars from around the world to examine ancient works by computer. Even after his retirement in 1998, Brunner and his wife of 41 years, Luci Berkowitz, remained committed to the university and established scholarships for outstanding graduate and undergraduate students in the classics, Lawrence said.

However, neither Brunner nor Berkowitz, also a retired professor of the classics at the university, were stuck in an ivory tower.

“When Luci and I retired … we decided we had had good careers, good lives, good everything, and that it was payback time,” Ted said in a 2002 Coastline Pilot interview.

The volunteer COP Program, Citizens on Patrol — that provides assistance to the Laguna Beach Police Department — was the payback they chose.

Berkowitz was already in the program when Ted joined up in 2001. But he wanted to do more, so he entered the Orange County Sheriff’s Academy.

“His first class at the academy was 9/11/01 — can you believe that?” Luci said. “The class became very close.”

The tall, trim, former professor was sworn in as a Level Three reserve officer when he graduated six months later, at age 67.

“As a COP volunteer, you do foot and car patrols, vacation home checks and traffic control,” Brunner said in the interview.

“When I put on that dark blue shirt [regulation reserve uniform] and strap on my gun, my major assignment is hit-and-run investigations.”

Brunner undertook the investigation of misdemeanor accidents — ones that involve property, not injuries or fatalities — at the request of Police Capt. Paul Workman.

Workman said Brunner’s participation took some of the burden off the shoulders of motorcycle officers who could focus on investigating fatal or injury hit and run accidents.

Brunner loved it.

“I think it is unconscionable to damage someone else’s property and then run away,” Brunner said in 2002. “I feel so sorry for the victims who are left holding the bag.”

Brunner used to his advantage the skills he acquired as a scholar of the Greek and Latin languages and literature. He was adept at textural analysis — deduction from written documents — valuable when reading hit-and-run reports, some of which contain no eyewitness information or evidence.

“He clearly had a lifetime commitment to the community,” Workman said after hearing of Brunner’s death. “In his way, he contributed to society, not only as a professor but later on serving at the police department as a volunteer and reserve officer.

“He truly had a strong drive, as does Luci. Both were very interested in giving back to the community. I think they felt fortunate to do that.

“He was a good guy, and I miss him already,” Workman said. “It is sad that he died, but he was strong right up to the end.”

Brunner continued his service to the department until 2005, when he was diagnosed with lung cancer.

Berkowitz plans to return to COP duty, from which she took a leave of absence during Ted’s illness and treatment.

“He was my best friend for 41 years,” Berkowitz said. “We went through 18 months of cancer treatment together.”

In accordance with Brunner’s wishes, the police department does not plan any organized memorial.

However, he will be honored this fall at the 35th anniversary celebration of the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae, according to Dean Lawrence.

No other services are planned.

“He told me, ‘No funeral, no viewing, no memorial service, no fuss and no flowers,” Berkowitz said.

Theodore F. Brunner was born July 3, 1934, in Nuremberg, Germany. Just after World War II, his family moved to the Netherlands and then to the United States when he was 18.

Brunner served in the U.S. Marine Corps before entering the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, from which he graduated in 1960 with a bachelor’s degree in the classics. He earned his master’s degree and a doctoral degree in 1965 from Stanford University.

Brunner was only 32 when he was recruited from Ohio State University in 1966 to start the classics department at UC Irvine, then just a year old. He was the department’s first chair and was Professor Emeritus at the time of his death.

In addition to his wife, Brunner is survived by two daughters from a previous marriage, Christine Brunner of Laguna Beach and Catherine Drever of Dana Point; three grandchildren; and his brother, Peter Brunner, of Ashland, Ore.