Severn Parker Costin Duvall, Jr., 87, of Lexington, Virginia, died Friday, March 2, 2012 at home.

Severn Duvall was born in Norfolk, Virginia, on March 25, 1924, the son of Severn Parker Costin Duvall and Helen Hobbs Duvall.

He was educated in the Norfolk public schools and went on to the University of Virginia for the class of 1945. His education was interrupted by World War II; he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve in 1942, serving first in the V-12 program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Released from active service in 1946, he returned to the University of Virginia and graduated in 1948.

During his undergraduate years he was a member of St. Elmo social fraternity, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, ODK, and the Raven Society.

He entered Princeton University as a doctoral candidate, but his progress was again interrupted when recalled by the Marine Corps in 1951 for a year of active duty during the Korean War.

In 1955 he completed a doctorate in English. Although he had taught briefly at Princeton in 1950, his appointment at Dartmouth in 1953 was the beginning of his full-time teaching career.

For 1957-58 he received a Fulbright lectureship in American literature and"landeskunde" at the Interpreter's Institute of the University of Mainz, in Germersheim, Germany.

In 1962 he came to Washington and Lee, where he assumed the Chair of the English department, and served in that position until 1978. In 1971, he received a second Fulbright lectureship, to the University of Warsaw. His primary teaching and research focused on the American South, with secondary interests in modern poetry, and American non-fictional prose. His most conspicuous committee assignment was with the Glasgow Endowment, bringing modern writers to speak and read, which he chaired for over two decades.

He is survived by his wife, Tamara Przybyl Duvall; by four children: Ridgely Howard Duvall, of Cambridge, Massachusetts; Severn P.C. Duvall III, of Westport, Connecticut; and Mary Duvall Roosevelt, of Boulder, Colorado -- all by his first wife, the late Marian Smith Duvall -- and Daniel Hobbs Duvall, of San Francisco, California; and by five grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held 4 p.m. Sunday, March 25, 2012 at Lee Chapel. A reception will follow at the Hotchkiss Alumni House. Memorial contributions may be made to Rockbridge Area Hospice, Community Pool, or the Rockbridge Area Free Clinic.

Arrangements are being handled by Harrison Funeral Home & Crematory, Lexington, VA.