II. Extract from “Obituary’’: H. Allan Gleason Jr. 1917-2007
Henry Allan 'Al' Gleason, Jr.– a distinguished Professor and an amazing storyteller
PREPARED :
STUDENT OF THE GROUP FIL 31-A
LARYSA VYNOHORODSKA
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Plan
I. Henry Allan 'Al' Gleason, Jr. – a distinguished Professor and an amazing storyteller . The main facts of his life.
II. Extract from “Obituary’’: H. Allan Gleason Jr. 1917-2007
III. The main features of his work
IV. Conclusion
V. References
With his brother, mathematician Andrew Mattei Gleason (left), in Toronto, 1969
I. THE MAIN FACTS OF HIS LIFE
| Born | April 18, 1917 |
| Died | January 13, 2007 (aged 89) |
| Fields | Linguistics |
| Institutions | University of Toronto |
| Alma mater | Hartford Seminary |
Henry Allan 'Al' Gleason, Jr. (April 18, 1917 – January 13, 2007) was a linguist and Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto. He taught at the university for many years and retired in the 1980s. Gleason began studying at Hartford Seminary in 1938 and received his PhD in 1946. His father was the botanist Henry Gleason, and mathematician Andrew Gleason was his brother.
Distinguished Professor and an amazing storyteller passed away peacefully in his home with his loving family beside him. He is survived by his beautiful wife of over 65 years, Frances Everett; son and daughter-in-law, Henry and Jan Gleason; and a daughter, Martha; brother, Andrew, Cambridge, MA; and a sister, Anne Eudey, Walnut Creek, CA; five grandchildren, Tina Galloway, Beth Schrock-Valles, Ann Applegate, Robert Schrock, Steven Schrock; and five great grandchildren.
Gleason was a member of the American Bible Society, and a pastor in Fancy Gap, Virginia.
Gleason is best known from his influential textbook Introduction to Descriptive Linguistics (Gleason 1955a), which was the first introductory textbook to gain general acceptance, and for some twenty-five years provided the rudiments of linguistic analysis for several generations of North American linguists. Accompanying the textbook was his Workbook in Descriptive Linguistics (Gleason 1955b). The exercises contained in the workbook provided practice exercises for students based on data from many languages from all parts of the world.
His text "Introduction to Descriptive Linguistics" (with an accompanying workbook) was positively reviewed in Language. The review described the book as a suitable update to Leonard Bloomfield's well-known textbook Language.