After educating students at Knox for more than four decades, Professor of Classics Brenda Fineberg celebrated her retirement with fellow faculty and members of the Knox community.

At her retirement reception, 10 alumni returned to campus to share their memories of Fineberg both in and out of the classroom. 

"The foundations of great liberal learning are based on those people who can transmit their love, passion, values, ideas and stories to younger generations," Michael Acerra '89 told those who gathered in the Lincoln Room for the reception. "Thank you for always bringing your beautiful passion, infectious laughter, great kindness, and high ideals to the classroom and into our lives."

Fineberg taught at Knox for 42 years. She received her B.A. and M.A. in classics from the University of Texas and her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Her teaching interests included Latin and Greek languages and literatures, ancient Mediterranean society and culture, and women's studies.

As a faculty member, Fineberg served as chair of the women's studies program and was a visiting scholar to the American Academy of Rome in 2012. In 2014, Knox alumni and students accompanied Fineberg to Greece to study Greek art and architecture.

"She taught me to love the Latin language; to closely read and analyze poetry; to understand the poetic line; and to admire powerful, monstrous women. She was my first openly feminist professor, and the first who made me feel valued as a woman in the classroom," said Maggie Queeney '04. "I am honored to have had the opportunity to know and work with Brenda. She is the kind, vigorous educator and fierce intellectual that I needed at 18, and that I now strive to be."