On Sunday, July 12, after a lengthy struggle with Alzheimer''s Disease, Edward Mason Anthony Jr., age 92, of Sunrise of McCandless and a half-century resident of Hampton Township. Professor, linguist, writer, poet, mentor, optimist, punster, naturalist, maker of colored pancakes. Husband of Ann Terbrueggen Anthony for 69 years. Father of Lynn Anthony Higgins of Hanover, N.H., Janice L. Anthony of Wakefield, R.I., and Edward Mason (Ted) Anthony IV of Hampton Township and Bangkok, Thailand. Grandfather of Julian Anthony Higgins, Matthew Anthony Sherry, Edward Mason Anthony V and Wyatt Dylan Kirk Anthony. Father-in-law of Roland L. Higgins, Michael Sherry and Melissa Rayworth-Anthony. Only child of the late Edward Mason Anthony Sr. and Elsie Sylvia (Haas) Anthony. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, on Sept. 1, 1922, he was a graduate of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he earned three degrees and taught linguistics for 20 years. He was a world traveler to the core, traveling to Afghanistan in 1951 to teach English there for a term, then moving his family to Thailand for much of the second half of the 1950s to teach and run language programs in Southeast Asia. He came to the University of Pittsburgh in 1964 as founder of the English Language Institute and founding chairman of the Linguistics Department, and went on to found several institutes and programs within the university and direct its Asian studies program for nearly a decade, all amid frequent trips abroad. Perhaps his proudest accomplishment was the creation of the Language and Culture Institute, which focused on the connections between how people communicate and the societies of which they are a part. In 1979, he and his wife joined the first wave of Pitt professors to teach as "foreign experts" in China months after it re-established relations with the United States. All these experiences only reinforced his half-century commitment to bringing together Pittsburgh and the world. He believed that shared culture and shared understanding through language could discourage bloodshed and facilitate peace. His combination of internationalism and Americanism came from his varied ancestry, about which he cared deeply a long line of American farmers and staunch independent thinkers on his father''s side, and hardy Bohemian and German immigrants on his mother''s. He once described himself as "probably a pacifist" but regretted for seven decades not being able to fight in World War II because of his poor eyesight; instead, he worked in a factory constructing pieces of trains to be deployed across North Africa. A spiritual omnivore, he saw merit in the Christianity of his forebears, the Buddhism of some of his chosen countries and the faith of the many peoples through whose lives and lands he wandered. "I cannot explain certain utterly unselfish beliefs seemingly present in all versions of humankind without thinking that they result from God-given gifts," he wrote. His favorite quote, tacked to the wall of his study, was from John Donne: "Any man''s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind." Arrangements by the Eloise B. Kyper Funeral Home. Private burial in Mount Royal Cemetery, Glenshaw. A public memorial service will be held in September, date and place to be announced. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Alzheimer''s Foundation of America, which fights an illness about which he once said: "I have Alzheimer''s Disease? Does Alzheimer have mine?"
Written tributes and memorials are welcomed and encouraged at www.Kyperfuneralhome.com