Antonio Zampolli's Obituary

By Harold Short

Professor Antonio Zampolli died suddenly and tragically on 22 August 2003. He was one of the founders of the ALLC in 1973, and a major pioneer in the application of computational techniques in literary and linguistic research from the 1960s. He was President of the Association from 1983 to the time of his death in 2003. His passing will be mourned by all ALLC members as well as countless colleagues around the world.

He was a moving spirit in the establishment of many other institutions and activities, including the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) and the European Language Resources Association (ELRA), and he will be hugely missed in these and many other communities, not least in the research centre in computational linguistics which he founded in Pisa, and more widely by colleagues in the University of Pisa and in the city itself.

The obituary which appears below is by Michael Sperberg-McQueen, a long-serving member of the ALLC Committee who worked closely with Professor Zampolli throughout the life of the Text Encoding Initiative Project as North American Editor. This obituary first appeared on the TEI-L discussion list, and has been slightly changed by agreement with the author. Following this are a few photographs kindly supplied by John Unsworth.

An obituary tribute will also be published in the Association’s journal, Literary and Linguistic Computing.

The Association is actively discussing appropriate ways to honour the life and work of Antonio Zampolli, and to establish lasting memorials to his achievements. Suggestions are invited from any members of the Association or others interested in promoting the life-long interests of our departed friend and colleague. We miss above all his energy, enthusiasm and humour.

Obituary notices and memorials

Alessandro Lenci: Antonio Zampolli 1937-2003, Humanist discussion group 25 Aug 2003 

C. Michael Sperberg-McQueen: Antonio Zampolli: A Memorial Tribute, TEI-L discussion list 27 Aug 2003

Nicoletta Calzolari: Antonio Zampolli. Una vita per la Linguistica computazionale, Bollettino ‘900 2003 2 (Dec)  

Susan Hockey: Obituary: Antonio Zampolli 1937–2003, Literary and Linguistic Computing 2004 19: 427-430  

Harold Short and John Unsworth: In memoriam: Antonio Zampolli, Humanist discussion group 12 Sep 2003Notes, memories and anecdotes

Willard McCarty: The lifetime burning in every moment

Joseph McRaben: Tribute to Zampolli