Cecelia Eaton Luschnig, of Moscow, died Thursday, June 16, 2022. After a long and brave struggle with cancer, she died peacefully in her husband’s arms on a warm and sunny afternoon at the Avalon Care Center in Pullman.
Modest and shy, Cecelia was known as “Owl” by close friends. One of the top United States scholars on the Greek playwright, Euripides, Cecelia was also a passionate classics educator and a stalwart Democrat. Along with English, she spoke Italian, modern Greek and French. Many of her students were her guests for excellent victuals and conversation. Her passion for words made her a constant cruciverbalist of the New York Times crossword puzzle. Her “Bartleby” poetry won prizes at the Latah Fair and many enjoyed her “Kramer Egg” art. She loved Bob Dylan, celebrating his birthday every year, and she considered the Paris Metro one of the Wonders of the World. She was a poet, photographer, and most recently, a novelist.
Cecelia never drove, except for one time in Ohio when she got the car up to 90 mph. There was also a memorable day not long ago, when crossing Washington Street, that she was almost hit by a car. She cracked the offending vehicle’s hood with her walking stick.
Born in 1942 in New York City to Jimmy Eaton and Olive Findlay Eaton, Cecelia was the last of three children. Her father was a Top 40s song writer. The Eatons lived in Washington Heights, Manhattan, and she graduated from the prestigious Hunter High, the girls’ academic school. Cecelia earned her classics degree at the City College of New York. She attended graduate school at the University of Cincinnati, where she studied classics.
While teaching at Ohio University, she met writer and photographer, Lance Luschnig, at a rescue archaeological dig. The two fell in love and married. The newlyweds then lived in Italy for three years while she wrote her dissertation and Lance taught English. They loved Sicily, the people, the culture and the archeology — especially the catacombs.
They returned to the United States when she was offered a postdoc at the University of Cincinnati. Next, she taught at the University of Washington in Seattle, and finally, a classics job opened at the University of Idaho. She was delighted. In the mid-1970s, just after the Nixon resignation, academic work was scarce.
The plan was to stay for five years, no more. But, they were won over by Moscow’s charm. She retired as professor emerita after 30 years.
Back then, UI classics was new and within the Foreign Language Department so there weren’t many students. During her first decade, she had to justify teaching classics at the university every year. This she did passionately and successfully.
Often Cecelia could be heard singing Greek text, which was not appreciated by all in her department. She created 14 different courses and was one of seven college teachers honored with the American Philological Association Award for Excellence in Teaching. She also received the Phi Kappa Phi University of Idaho Alumni Association Distinguished Faculty Award.
Cecelia was president of the Classical Association of the Pacific Northwest for a year and edited its bulletin for a decade. She advised Eta Sigma Phi, the UI chapter, and developed its lecture series that continued for 28 years.
One of Cecelia’s proudest moments was in 2003, when the UI Classics Club’s read her translation of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata. The staged reading was part of The Lysistrata Project: A Theatrical Act of Dissent, an international anti-war action. Three other participating locations also used her script.
Lysistrata was one of several texts she translated. Her most recent book was a translation of Hippolytus. Under the name C.A.E. Luschnig, Cecelia published around two dozen books. Her first book on Greek language had a Facebook fan page. Her scholarly work continued into retirement, and before she passed, she was writing another non-fiction book and two novels.
Lance sends a special thank-you to Dr. Pat Marciano for her care and compassion over the years.
Cecelia was cheerful and brave until the end. She is survived by her husband, Lance, and her cats, Katina and Nikos. Cecelia valued her former students and current friends in Moscow, as well as Whimsy, Kramer, Bartleby and Heddy.
Memorial donations are suggested to the Idaho Food Bank, Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute, the Latah Democratic Party, or at kenworthy.org/donate, dedicated to the memory of Cecelia Luschnig.
From her work-in-progress novel, The Letters of Calpurnia: “Private lives inside our houses, not grand events are our histories.”
