er as odd to learn that Loomis was Japanese, until it is known that he was born in Japan to missionary parents, Henry and Jane (Greene) Loomis, thus ascribing to him Japanese citizenship. He first attended Hotchkiss School and from there went on to Williams College, where he received a BA in 1909. He received his MA from Harvard in 1910. He then went to Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar where he received a B Litt. in 1913.
             He first married Gertrude Schoerpperle on August 27, 1919. His second marriage was to Laura Hibbard, an English professor at Wellesley College, on June 6, 1925 until her death in 1960. His third marriage was to Dorothy Bethurum.
             His first position was as instructor at the University of Illinois, Urbana from 1913-18. From there he went to Columbia University where he became a member of the English faculty from 1919-58, and professor emeritus from 1958-66. He was also Eastman Professor at Oxford from 1955-56. During World War I, he was the editor of the Army publication Attenshun 21.
             He was a member of numerous scholarly societies including the International Arthurian Society, of which he was president from 1948-63. He belonged to the Modern Language Association, the Medieaval Academy of America, where he was a fellow and also the second vice-president from 1961-64, the Modern Humanities Research Association, and the American Humanist Association.
             Loomis was also the recipient of a variety of awards and honors. As mentioned, he was a Rhodes Scholar at the New College at Oxford. He was awarded the Haskins Medal of Medieval Academy in 1951 for Arthurian Tradition and Chretien de Troyes. In addition, he received a D. Litt. from the University of Wales in 1952, from Columbia University in 1957, and from Williams College in 1957. Finally, he received a Doct. hon. causa. From the University of Rennes in 1952.
             Loomis, who died on 12 October 1966, is recognized as one of the world's forem...