Champion Of Humanities Honored By UC
For 70 years, Margo Tytus has been involved in supporting scholarship at UC, particularly in the classics and archeology. UC recognizes her work with its highest honor.
Margo Tytus, even at 90 years of age, is a major force in the pursuit of excellence in the classics department and throughout the University. Although she is not an alumna of the University, and in fact never attended the University of Cincinnati as a student, she has been an outstanding proponent for archeological research through the University.
Mrs. Tytus’s background is remarkable. She is the granddaughter of Peter Rawson Taft, who is the brother of Charles Phelps Taft. She has been involved with archeology since her teenage years, participating in a dig in Turkey with William Semple, who was chair of the classics department, and also an in-law of her family. She was a member of the Carl Blegen excavation team in Troy, northwest of Turkey, in 1935. She now has the distinction of being the only living member of this team, and Mrs. Tytus was one of the first proponents of the Troy excavations which we launched in 1988, in conjunction with the University of Tuebingen.
She joined the Board of the Charles Phelps Taft Memorial Fund, which is one of the largest endowments available to UC, in 1951, and has continued for over a half century as a member. She is a past president of their Board of Trustees, and has involved many members of her family and the Taft family in their important work. She is a very effective advocate for the Humanities and Classics Departments.
In addition to her other works, she was instrumental in endowing two chairs in the classics department; she is a co-founder of the Cincinnati Preservation Association; and she is actively involved in the community with the Cincinnati Opera, the Taft Museum, and the Cincinnati Art Museum. The Cincinnati Fine Arts Fund was founded by the Taft family. In the year 2000, the University of Cincinnati Classics Department named a Visiting Scholars Program in her honor.
She is a woman of vision and compassion; a tireless worker and promoter of the humanities; a committed philanthropist; and even now continues to be a tremendous force in the Cincinnati community.
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