Trudy Becker, a senior instructor of history at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, died on August 26 from complications of lung cancer. She was 61 years old.
Dr. Becker was born in Fall River, Massachusetts, and raised in Boston. After graduating from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1983, she earned a master’s degree in classics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a master’s degree in history from Virginia Tech, and a Ph.D. in classics from the University of Florida with a dissertation on fragmentary Roman historians.
Dr. Becker began her career at Virginia Tech in 1991. In addition to her role as senior instructor in the history department, she served as associate chair of the department from 2011 to 2016. She also served as an affiliate with the classical studies program in the department of modern and classical languages and literatures.