Retired English professor and chairman, Austin Charles Dobbins, 86, a formidable teacher who commanded respect in the classroom as he taught Shakespeare and Milton to almost two generations of Samford students, died in Birmingham on Tuesday, May 31. He was 86 and had been in weakening health for years. A memorial service was held at Dawson Baptist Church in Birmingham to remember Dobbins, who taught English at Samford University from 1950 until 1985 and was Chair of the English Department from 1957 to 1979.
The son of Dr. Gaines S. Dobbins, a well-known Baptist educator and for many years Dean of the School of Christian Education at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, Austin Dobbins was a graduate of Mississippi College and earned MA and PhD degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In his thirty-five years of teaching at Samford, his special interests were the works of Milton, Shakespeare, and Chaucer, and generations of his students profited from his vast knowledge of English literature. In 1975, the University of Alabama Press published his book, Milton and the Book of Revelation: the Heavenly Cycle, which has been cited in recent years as still one of the outstanding scholarly studies of that poet.
Dr. Dobbins was, for a half-century, an active member of Dawson Baptist Church.
He is survived by his beloved wife of 59 years, Mary Willis Dobbins, his daughter Ginger Howell and her husband, Tom, and grandchildren Ashley and Jonathan Howell, all of New Orleans, LA, and his daughter Betsy Fleenor and her husband, Michael, of Birmingham.
Memorial donations may be made to the fund that Austin Dobbins established some years ago in honor of his father, the Gaines S. Dobbins English Scholarship, c/o University Relations, Samford University.
The son of Dr. Gaines S. Dobbins, a well-known Baptist educator and for many years Dean of the School of Christian Education at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, Austin Dobbins was a graduate of Mississippi College and earned MA and PhD degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In his thirty-five years of teaching at Samford, his special interests were the works of Milton, Shakespeare, and Chaucer, and generations of his students profited from his vast knowledge of English literature. In 1975, the University of Alabama Press published his book, Milton and the Book of Revelation: the Heavenly Cycle, which has been cited in recent years as still one of the outstanding scholarly studies of that poet.
Dr. Dobbins was, for a half-century, an active member of Dawson Baptist Church.
He is survived by his beloved wife of 59 years, Mary Willis Dobbins, his daughter Ginger Howell and her husband, Tom, and grandchildren Ashley and Jonathan Howell, all of New Orleans, LA, and his daughter Betsy Fleenor and her husband, Michael, of Birmingham.
Memorial donations may be made to the fund that Austin Dobbins established some years ago in honor of his father, the Gaines S. Dobbins English Scholarship, c/o University Relations, Samford University.
Retired English professor and chairman, Austin Charles Dobbins, 86, a formidable teacher who commanded respect in the classroom as he taught Shakespeare and Milton to almost two generations of Samford students, died in Birmingham on Tuesday, May 31. He was 86 and had been in weakening health for years. A memorial service was held at Dawson Baptist Church in Birmingham to remember Dobbins, who taught English at Samford University from 1950 until 1985 and was Chair of the English Department from 1957 to 1979.
The son of Dr. Gaines S. Dobbins, a well-known Baptist educator and for many years Dean of the School of Christian Education at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, Austin Dobbins was a graduate of Mississippi College and earned MA and PhD degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In his thirty-five years of teaching at Samford, his special interests were the works of Milton, Shakespeare, and Chaucer, and generations of his students profited from his vast knowledge of English literature. In 1975, the University of Alabama Press published his book, Milton and the Book of Revelation: the Heavenly Cycle, which has been cited in recent years as still one of the outstanding scholarly studies of that poet.
Dr. Dobbins was, for a half-century, an active member of Dawson Baptist Church.
He is survived by his beloved wife of 59 years, Mary Willis Dobbins, his daughter Ginger Howell and her husband, Tom, and grandchildren Ashley and Jonathan Howell, all of New Orleans, LA, and his daughter Betsy Fleenor and her husband, Michael, of Birmingham.
Memorial donations may be made to the fund that Austin Dobbins established some years ago in honor of his father, the Gaines S. Dobbins English Scholarship, c/o University Relations, Samford University.
The son of Dr. Gaines S. Dobbins, a well-known Baptist educator and for many years Dean of the School of Christian Education at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, Austin Dobbins was a graduate of Mississippi College and earned MA and PhD degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In his thirty-five years of teaching at Samford, his special interests were the works of Milton, Shakespeare, and Chaucer, and generations of his students profited from his vast knowledge of English literature. In 1975, the University of Alabama Press published his book, Milton and the Book of Revelation: the Heavenly Cycle, which has been cited in recent years as still one of the outstanding scholarly studies of that poet.
Dr. Dobbins was, for a half-century, an active member of Dawson Baptist Church.
He is survived by his beloved wife of 59 years, Mary Willis Dobbins, his daughter Ginger Howell and her husband, Tom, and grandchildren Ashley and Jonathan Howell, all of New Orleans, LA, and his daughter Betsy Fleenor and her husband, Michael, of Birmingham.
Memorial donations may be made to the fund that Austin Dobbins established some years ago in honor of his father, the Gaines S. Dobbins English Scholarship, c/o University Relations, Samford University.
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