Vincent Henry Learnihan; History Expert

Vincent Henry Learnihan, 81, expert on Western civilization. Born in Los Angeles, Learnihan planned to study American history, but his facility with languages led him into medieval history. After earning bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees and lecturing at UCLA, he joined the teaching staff at Pomona College in 1949. He officially retired in 1982, but as raconteur at the Learnihan Table in the Faculty House of the Claremont Colleges, he remained a fixture on campus until his death. Tough but popular with his students, he was honored by 30 of them in 1986 with the Vincent Learnihan Western Civilization Prize. The award is given annually to the outstanding freshman in the Western civilization course Learnihan established. In 1958, the professor took sabbatical leave to travel around the world by ocean freighter while translating Adam of Bremen’s medieval German ecclesiastical history. On Thursday in Claremont.