Peter R. Prifti, a historian, linguist, publicist, and translator, passed away in San Diego, California. He was born in Rehovë, Kolonje, in 1924. He emigrated to the United States in 1940. He completed postgraduate studies (bachelor’s degree, 1949) and a master’s in philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania (1955). He served as the secretary of the Pan-Albanian Federation “Vatra” (“Hearth”) (1958–1960) in Boston. He worked at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), in Cambridge (in the International Studies sector, focusing on Albania, 1961–1976). He was a consultant for the Albanian language at the Linguistics Department of the University of California, San Diego (1976–1980). He is the author of several books, including “Socialist Albania since 1944: Domestic and Foreign Development” (Cambridge, Mass, 1978); “Remote Albania: The Politics of Isolation”, Tirana, 1999. He also published collections of articles and studies on political and linguistic topics, including “Confrontation in Kosova: The Albanian-Serb Struggle 1969-1999”, Columbia University NY, 1999 and “Gjuha është organizëm i gjallë” (“Language is a Living Organism“) (Tirana, 1995). He was co-author of “Standard Albanian: A Reference Grammar for Students”, Stanford, California, 1982. He also contributed several entries on Albania to the Encyclopedia Britannica. Peter R. Prifti was awarded the Order of “Naim Frashëri” First Class. Since 1980, he had worked as a freelance professional. (In the photo: Peter R. Prifti)
Text source: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 3 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2009, page 2089.
Photograph: © https://www.dignitymemorial.com/fr-ca/obituaries/san-diego-ca/peter-prifti-4351707
Graphic Processing: AHCF
