"It was a time to be outdoors and active in a country of great beauty, wonderful food and people of great warmth and friendliness who appreciate someone speaking French to them," Smythe said. "We were bicycling the back roads following Michelin maps that showed the small byways."

Andrew L. Zwick '00, who took Marius's freshman seminar on Mark Twain and William Faulkner, said Marius's summers in France figured in the stories he often told in class.

"His experiences were always so charming--you know, this Southern gentleman meeting these Europeans and them being as fascinated with him as he was with them," Zwick said.

After returning from France, Marius served as a pastor and studied the Reformation at Yale University, earning his Ph.D. in 1962.

Marius taught for two years at Gettysburg College, then took a professorship at the University of Tennessee.

He joined in the activist currents of his time, speaking out against the Vietnam War and protesting segregation.

"He was proud that he was one of the few on that campus that pushed for civil rights when it wasn't something we took for granted," said Professor of Greek and Latin Richard F. Thomas, who worked with Marius to coach students selected to speak at Commencement.