Sterling Dow was an American classical archaeologist, epigrapher, and professor of archaeology at Harvard University. After secondary education at Phillips Exeter Academy, Dow matriculated in 1921 at Harvard University and graduated there in 1925 with a bachelor's degree in philosophy. As the winner of the Fiske Scholarship, Dow spent the academic year 1925–1926 studying ancient history at Trinity College, Cambridge. Returning to Harvard in 1926, he graduated with M.A. in 1928 and Ph.D. in history in 1936. His doctoral supervisor was the Canadian ancient historianWilliam Scott Ferguson. Dow married Elizabeth Sanderson Flagg in 1931. Sterling and Elizabeth Dow spent the years from 1931 to 1936 in Athens, Greece and often worked together on making paper impressions of stone inscriptions unearthed from the Ancient Agora of Athens by excavations sponsored by the American School of Classical Studies. A Guggenheim Fellowship for the academic year 1934–1935 and various Harvard awards supported Dow in Athens. He benefitted from working with the epigrapher Johannes Kirchner. During his career Dow was awarded two more Guggenheim Fellowships. Dow's colleagues in Athens included Bert Hodge Hill, Homer Thompson, William Bell Dinsmoor, Virginia Grace, and Lucy Shoe. At Harvard, Dow was an instructor from 1936 to 1941, an associate professor from 1941 to 1948, Professor of History and Greek from 1946 to 1948, and the John E. Hudson Professor of Archaeology from 1949 to 1970, when he retired as professor emeritus. During WW II, he was an academic leave of absence and served as a member of the Office of Strategic Services in Washington, DC, and in Egypt. During the academic year 1966–1967 he was on sabbatical in Athens as the Annual Professor at the American School of Classical Studies. From 1970 to 1977 he was a professor of Greek civilization and history at Boston College. For the academic year 1977–1978 he was a professor of classics at Vassar College. Dow was given three honorary degrees. He was a founder of Archaeology magazine and the American Research Center in Egypt. From 1946 to 1948 he was the president of the American Institute of Archaeology. In 1984 Duke University Press published a festschrift in honor of his 80th birthday. Ohio State University's Center for Epigraphical and Paleographical Studies administers The Sterling and Elizabeth Dow Fellowship in Greek epigraphy and history. His wife died in 1990. Upon his death in 1995 he was survived by a daughter, five grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. There was a memorial service for Dow in Harvard's Memorial Church on 8 April 1995.
