UNC faculty and alumni English majors will mourn the passing of Professor George Kane, one of the rare faculty members whose works will still be read in 2509.

Kane came to UNC after a distinguished teaching career in Great Britain. His scholarly career however had begun in Canada, and was substantially developed in the German POW camp at Colditz. He had been at Dunkerque, and was captured and imprisoned, too wounded to flee. But while his fellow prisoners tried to escape, Kane awaited the packages of photostats of manuscripts of the great Middle English poem Piers Plowman. Piers Plowman, the work of one William Langland, survives in three versions, as Langland improved and updated his text. It is an attempt to explain how to live well, full of Christian teaching, but also a fierce satire on the corruptions of the age. The text has survived in some 56 manuscripts, and Kane had seen every one. He transcribed them with an unrivalled precision.

At Chapel Hill Kane taught Middle English, and was of such authority that his reference could secure a job for a deserving grad student. His seminars were legendary: students had to know all the differences between all of the versions, and to be able to identify the grammar of any word in the text of the poem. They called him 'Ahab': for he had kept the style of a British officer, and he knew how to command. But his parties for his students were also famous: everyone was invited, and his hospitality was memorable. He might tell colleagues and students how to run their lives, but his care was genuine, and his appreciation of good work was the best encouragement.

To relax he most enjoyed fishing, and his last home was on the English coast, in Eastbourne, where he died Dec. 27, 2008. His death marks the end of an era.

Paul Frederick Sharp

Paul Frederick Sharp, chancellor of UNC from 1964-1966, died Feb. 19 in Norman, Okla. He was 91.

Soon after arriving in Chapel Hill, Sharp called "the rediscovery of the student" the theme of his work. In addition, he said, "Our University calls upon all of us to accept challenges of service to our state and nation, larger than life size and greater than our own visions."

During his brief tenure, Sharp noted the physical and academic challenges faced by the prospective growth of the student body, to 20,000. He stressed academic excellence, adding faculty, improving the scholarly lives of students and the goal of achieving national eminence for the university.

Sharp left Carolina to become president of Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and later was president of the University of Oklahoma from 1971-78. A stroke forced him to step down as president. He continued his service to OU as a professor of history and higher education. Oklahoma presented him with a distinguished service citation in 1978.

Survivors include his wife, Rose; three children, William Frederick Sharp and his wife, Liz, of Homer, N.Y.; Kathryn Ann Dunlap, of Oklahoma City; and Paul Trevor Sharp and his wife, Jane, of Greensboro; seven grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; and his sister, Thelma Miller, of Colorado Springs.

A memorial service was held Sunday at the First Christian Church, 220 S. Webster, in Norman. Donations may be made to the Reach Out and Read Program through the University of Oklahoma Foundation, Inc., 100 Timberdell Road, Norman, Okla. 73019.

John Eric Wilson

John Eric Wilson, 89, died Feb. 12 at his home in Chapel Hill.

He graduated from University of Chicago in 1941, from the University of Illinois in 1944 and Cornell University Medical College. He remained there as an assistant in biochemistry until 1948 when he moved to Chapel Hill to take up a position at the UNC School of Medicine.

On June 7, 1947, he married Marion Ruth Heaton of New York City who survives him. They have three sons: Kenneth Heaton Wilson and his wife Joanne Peebles Wilson of Chapel Hill, Douglas Courtney Wilson and his wife Betsy Kraus, of Pittsboro and Richard Mosher Wilson and his wife Carol Thomson Wilson of Charlotte. Surviving him also are ten grandchildren. His sister, Opal Wilson Broner of Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., also survives him.

He was a member of the UNC faculty in the Department of biochemistry from 1950 until his retirement in 1990. Dedicated to the preservation of natural resources, he loved bird watching and plants, and worked to conserve land in rural Orange County. He was a devoted UNC basketball fan attending their games as long as he was able.

A memorial service was held Feb. 18 at the United Church of Chapel Hill. Memorial contributions may be made to the Triangle Land Conservancy, 1101 Haynes Street, Suite 205, Raleigh, NC 27604-1455, www.triangleland.org.

Please send obituary notices and photographs to sfarmer@nando.com. Obituaries are limited to 300 words

Edith Hickman Boyer

Edith Hickman Boyer, 95, a resident of Carolina Meadows, died Saturday at Carolina Meadows.

Born Feb. 27, 1913, in Arlington, N.J., she was the fourth child of S. Chester and Rose Hickman.

Edith graduated from Kearny High School in 1931 and attended the Scudder School in New York City. She worked in several secretarial jobs, including at the Empire State Building and on Wall Street. She married John Boyer on Aug. 6, 1938, in Tolland, Conn. At the time of her death, they had been married over 70 years.

In 1941, they started a family with their firstborn son, Michael, and Edith was a devoted mother in raising their three sons, as well as a devoted grandmother later in life. In addition to raising a family, she had many other interests. In New Jersey, she was very active in church activities, as well as volunteering at the local hospital. She was also active in the local garden club, and performed independent work as a self-taught landscape designer.

After moving to Chapel Hill in 1971, Edith started volunteering at the North Carolina Botanical Garden and continued there for 20 years. Among other things, she was instrumental in designing and installing the shade herb garden. She was also involved in the startup of the Piedmont chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society. In 1999, a daylily named "Edith Boyer" was introduced in her honor.

Edith had a lifelong interest in tennis. She was also an avid rug-hooker, designing her own rugs and dying her own wool.

Survivors include her husband, John, and two sons, David Boyer and his wife Sherry Olson of Plainfield, Vt., and George Boyer and his wife Gloria Ross of Livingston, Mont. Also surviving are two grandchildren, Dashiell Boyer-Olson of New York City and Rose Boyer of Livingston, Mont.

Memorial service arrangements are pending.

Memorial contributions may be made to the N.C. Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill.