George V. Bobrinskoy

George Vladimir Bobrinskoy (; 23 January 1901 – 17 November 1985) was a Russian-born American Sanskritist. He was professor emeritus in the departments of linguistics, Slavic languages and South Asian literature and civilization at the University of Chicago.

Early life George V. Bobrinskoy was born on 23 January 1901 in Tula, Russia as Count Grigory Vladimirovich Bobrinskiy. He was a "left-hand" descendant of the Russian empress Catherine the Great. After the Russian Revolution he left his country at the end of the Civil war, fighting in the ranks of the Preobrajensky Guards regiment. After a short stay in Novi Sad in Serbia, he immigrated to the United States in 1923.

Bobrinskoy resumed his undergraduate studies at the Philadelphia Lutheran Seminary, earning his BA in 1926. Then he went to Yale University and studied Sanskrit under Franklin Edgerton.

During the Second World War, the University of Chicago was selected as a Center for Russian language and area instruction under the Army Specialized Training Program. After the death of Samuel Northrup Harper the chairman of the Russian department in January 1943, Bobrinskoy his associate was asked to head the Russian-language program.

After the war he was chairman of the department of linguistics from 1951 to 1966 and dean of students in the humanities division from 1954 to 1967. with a son George V. Bobrinskoy Jr. and a daughter Theodora Bobrinskoy Shepherd. At University of Chicago he was also the tennis champion of the Quadrangle Club until beaten by Ignace Jay Gelb.