Funeral services will be held tomorrow at Temple Emanu-El for Dr. Richard J.H. Gottheil, professor of Semitic languages at Columbia University, who died Friday night at the age of 73 of heart disease following an illness of two weeks.
Prof. Gottheil, the oldest member of the Columbia faculty, was an internationally known authority on Oriental tongues and archaeology of the Near East.
A Zionist from the inception of the movement, Prof. Gottheil was president of the American Federation of Zionists from 1898 to 1904.
He was the author of many volumes on his specialties. In 1909 and 1910 he was in charge of the American School of Archaeology at Jerusalem.
In a tribute to him on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday, President Nicholas Murray Butler of Columbia said:
“Dr. Gottheil is an ornament to Columbia University, the City of New York and the intellectual life of the United States and the world.”
He is survived by his widow and two stepsons, Maurice and Rene Leon.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
