Harry Angier Hoffner, Jr. (born November 27, 1934) is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 professor of Hittitology.

Early life and education

Hoffner was born in Jacksonville, Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

 to Harry Angier and Madaline Wolford Hoffner. Their third child, he went on to study at Princeton University

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

, where he earned his B.A. Cum Laude in 1956. Hoffner continued his masters studies at the Dallas Theological Seminary

Dallas Theological Seminary

Dallas Theological Seminary is an evangelical theological seminary located in Dallas, Texas. It is known for popularizing the theological system known as Dispensationalism...

, obtaining a Masters in Theology in 1960, and then took up study at Brandeis University

Brandeis University

Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...

, earning an M.A. in 1961 and a Ph.D. in Ancient Mediterranean Studies in 1963.

Academic career

His first teaching post was at Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

' Wheaton College

Wheaton College (Illinois)

Wheaton College is a private, evangelical Protestant liberal arts college in Wheaton, Illinois, a suburb west of Chicago in the United States...

, where he taught Hebrew

Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...

 and Biblical studies

Biblical studies

Biblical studies is the academic study of the Judeo-Christian Bible and related texts. For Christianity, the Bible traditionally comprises the New Testament and Old Testament, which together are sometimes called the "Scriptures." Judaism recognizes as scripture only the Hebrew Bible, also known as...

 from 1963 to 1964. Hoffner returned to Brandeis in 1964, teaching ancient Near Eastern languages as an assistant professor of Anatolian studies. He left for Yale

YALE

RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...

 in 1969 to be an associate professor of Assyriology

Assyriology

Assyriology is the archaeological, historical, and linguistic study of ancient Mesopotamia and the related cultures that used cuneiform writing. The field covers the Akkadian sister-cultures of Assyria and Babylonia, together with their cultural predecessor; Sumer...

 and Hittitology, and in 1974 settled at the University of Chicago

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

's Oriental Institute

Oriental Institute, Chicago

The Oriental Institute , established in 1919, is the University of Chicago's archeology museum and research center for ancient Near Eastern studies.- History and purpose:James Henry Breasted built up the collection of the Haskell Oriental Museum...

 as a professor of Hittitology. Hoffner continued teaching until 2000, and is currently the John A. Wilson Professor of Hittitology, Emeritus as well as editor of the Chicago Hittite Dictionary

Chicago Hittite Dictionary

The Chicago Hittite Dictionary is a project at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago to create a comprehensive dictionary of the Hittite language. The project was founded by Hans Gustav Güterbock and Harry Hoffner in 1975 and funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. It...

, which he co-founded with Hans Gustav Güterbock

Hans Gustav Güterbock

Hans Gustav Güterbock was a German-American Hittitologist. Born and trained in Germany, his career was ended with the rise of the Nazis because of his Jewish heritage, and he was forced to resettle in Turkey...

in 1976.