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Mary Dove, Professor of English, died suddenly on Friday 5 June.

Born in 1944, Mary came to Sussex in 1995 as a Lecturer in English, was promoted to Reader in 2000 and Professor in 2008. 

A distinguished medievalist, internationally recognised for her work on the history of Old Testament interpretation, she edited and translated the standard medieval Latin commentary, the Glossa Ordinaria, in the Song of Songs (1997) and published The First English Bible: The text and context of the Wycliffite Versions in 2007. 

Mary was preparing a critical edition of medieval texts arguing for the translation of the Bible into English, for which she had been awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship for 2007-09. 

She was a key member of the Sussex Centre for Early Modern Studies, but her interests ranged far beyond the middle ages and the early modern period. She was a dedicated, stimulating and wonderfully versatile teacher who was equally at home with the literature and thought of the 12th and the 20th centuries. 

Mary also played a full part in developing the new English curriculum, chaired the exam boards of English and American Studies and served on various University committees. 

She was a splendid, hard-working colleague, lively, unstuffy and very good company. It is desperately sad that she died at the very height of her powers as a scholar and with no chance to enjoy her approaching retirement. 

Following a private family funeral on Wednesday 17 June, a service will take place in the Meeting House on campus at 4pm, to which all Mary's friends and colleagues are invited. Refreshments will follow in the Meeting House Quiet Room. 

Norman Vance, Professor of English