MURDER OF HERBERT DE COU
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After graduating from the University of Michigan in Classics, Herbert De Cou taught in the Latin Department from time to time, but when offered a regular position in the department he chose instead to live abroad and work on Mediterranean archaeological sites. He accompanied Kelsey and his students in 1901 as a guide when they traveled around Greece and was working for the AIA's dig at Cyrene in Libya when he was shot by a local assassin while leading the workmen (in Richard Norton's absence) up to the site. Responsibility for this hostile act (and potshots had been taken at the dig house on several occasions before) has never been clearly established; but the finger of suspicion points at Italian interference prior to their invasion of Libya later in the year. In the face of that invasion, the Cyrene project was suspended, then abandoned.
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Portrait of Herbert Fletcher De Cou
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A letter of condolence from Richard Norton to Herbert De Cou's mother, Margaret, dated March 11, 1911, and a letter from Margaret De Cou to Kelsey dated April 5, 1911 Bentley Historical Library, Kelsey Museum Papers
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F. W. Kelsey's diary of 1911 referring to the death of De Cou Bentley Historical Library, Kelsey Museum Papers
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The Excavations at Cyrene, First Campaign, 1910–1911 Bentley Historical Library, Kelsey Museum Papers
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Telegram concerning the death of De Cou AIA Archives
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Newspaper article, Ann Arbor Times News, June 5, 1911 Bentley Historical Library, Kelsey Museum Papers
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Richard Norton, director of Cyrene excavation From The Harvard Graduates Magazine 27, no. 106 (1918)
