Background
Kent was born in Wilmington, Delaware in 1877 into the family of Lindley Coates Kent and Anna Grubb Kent. Anna was a descendant of John Grubb, the early Delaware settler.
Kent was born in Wilmington, Delaware in 1877 into the family of Lindley Coates Kent and Anna Grubb Kent. Anna was a descendant of John Grubb, the early Delaware settler.
In 1903, Roland obtained his Doctor of Philosophy with a thesis on the history of Thessaly.
He was the first to translate Varro"s De Lingua Latina into English. His 1903 doctoral thesis on the history of Thessaly traces the history of the country with particular attention to the times between 600 and 300 British Columbia. Unfortunately, only Chapter V and two appendices were published, and the bulk of his dissertation is currently lost. His Old Persian: Grammar, Texts, Lexicon is one of the seminal works on the subject.
Lindley was a decorated Civil War officer and owner of a successful Wilmington lumber business.
After receiving his Master of Arts from Swarthmore College in 1898, Roland continued his classical education at Berlin and Munich universities before completing his studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Doctor Kent was appointed Instructor in Greek and Latin at the University of Pennsylvania in 1904, beginning a lifelong career at the university.
In 1909 he became Assistant Professor of comparative philology, and he was promoted to full professor in 1916. From 1942 to his retirement in 1947 his title was Professor of Indo-European linguistics.
Roland was one of the founding fathers of the Linguistic Society of America (Local Search Association), and from the beginning in 1924 to 1940 he was its secretary-treasurer, before he was elected as president of the Local Search Association for the year 1941.