William Abbott Oldfather

William Abbott Oldfather (23 October 1880 – 27 May 1945) was an American classical scholar. He was influential in building strong academic traditions in classical studies at the University of Illinois and for his studies of ancient Locris in Greece.

Early life and education William Oldfather was born in 1880 to American parents stationed in Urumiah, Persia (now Reza'iyeh, Iran or Urmia, Iran). His parents were Presbyterian missionaries, Jeremiah Oldfather and Felicia (née Rice). His father's paternal immigrant ancestor had emigrated from Germany in 1770 before the American Revolution and his mother's ancestors included pioneer explorer Daniel Boone. His younger brother was Charles Henry Oldfather (1887–1954), who also became a classical scholar. He was noted for many translations, and they sometimes worked together.

In 1890 the family returned to the United States, working in Harmony, Indiana. Oldfather attended local schools and did his college work at Hanover College, with a second bachelor's degree completed at Harvard College, followed by a master's degree.

He married Margaret Agnes Giboney in 1902; they had two daughters. He started his academic career teaching Classics at Northwestern University, and studying deeply in important German scholarship. In 1906, he traveled to Germany for additional graduate work; he was awarded a doctorate by the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in 1908. He studied with Hellenist Otto Crusius, the Latinist Friedrich Vollmer, historian Robert von Pöhlmann; and archeologist and art historian Adolf Furtwängler. Oldfather was strongly influenced by his studies in Germany: he became a great admirer of German scholarship, nearly bilingual in the language, and sympathetic to the Socialist cause. Insisting on a public meeting at the university, Oldfather and his colleagues were exonerated but most of them did not have positions equivalent to his and were dismissed, part of widespread discrimination against German-associated persons during the war.

Works Ysopet-Avionnet: The Latin and French Texts (1919) with Kenneth McKenzie Discourses of Epictetus (1925), Loeb Classical Library, translator Contributions Toward a Bibliography of Epictetus (1927) Index Apvleianvs (1934) Index verborum Ciceronis Epistularum (1938) with H. V. Canter and K. M. Abbott Studies in the text tradition of St. Jerome's Vitae patrum (1943), editor