Tristram Potter Coffin
| Tristram Potter Coffin | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
February 13, 1922 San Marino, California |
| Died | January 31, 2012 (aged 89) South Kingstown, Rhode Island |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | University professor, academic, author |
| Known for | Leading scholar of ballad texts in the 20th century |
| Spouse(s) | Ruth Anne Hendrickson Coffin (May 28, 1922 - August 5, 2011) |
Tristram (“Tris”) Potter Coffin (February 13, 1922 – January 31, 2012) was an American folklorist and leading scholar of ballad texts in the 20th century. Coffin spent the bulk of his career at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a professor of English and a co-founder of the Folklore Department. He was the author of 20 books and more than 100 scholarly articles and reviews.
Coffin was born February 13, 1922 in San Marino, California, the son of Tristram Roberts Coffin, an investment banker formerly of Richmond, Indiana and New York City, and Elsie Potter Robinson of Edgewood Farm, Wakefield, Rhode Island. He had an older sister, Trelsie Coffin Buffum Lucas (1918–1987); an older brother, Roberts Robinson Coffin, who died shortly after birth in 1920; and a younger brother, Peter Robinson Coffin (1923–1998), who was a college professor as well. He also had an older half-sister, Lydia, and half-brother, Richard, from his father's first marriage.
Coming to Rhode Island after his father died of influenza in 1927, he was educated at the Providence Country Day School, Moses Brown School (1939) in Providence, and then Haverford College (1943) outside of Philadelphia. After three years in the United States Army Air Corps and the Signal Corps during World War II, he completed an MA and a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania.
After three years in the old United States Army Air Corps and the Signal Corps during World War II, he took an MA and a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania.
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