Radd K. Ehrman was born in Lawrence, Kansas, on October 5, 1952 to Richard and Leta Ehrman. He attended primary and secondary school in both Fremont, Nebraska, and Lawrence Kansas. He entered the University of Kansas as a freshman in 1970 where he met his future wife, Cynthia Ann Macey, a nursing student. They married in 1974.
He graduated in with a B.A. in Classics in 1974 and entered the masters degree program in the Fall of that same year. In 1976 he wrote his master’s thesis “Irony in Plautus” under the supervision of Professor L. R. Lind.
In 1976 Ehrman entered the doctoral program in Classical Philology at the University of Illinois, first on a fellowship and then as a graduate teacher of Latin and Classical Civilization courses. He completed his doctoral dissertation, “Lucilius and the Cross-Currents of Literary Thought in the Time of Scipio Aemilianus” under the direction of Professor John K. Newman in 1982.
Ehrman joined the faculty of the Department of Classical Studies as an assistant professor in 1982; he was promoted to Associate Professor in 1991 and to Professor in 2005.
In 2003 Ehrman was awarded one of the three Arts and Sciences Distinguished Teaching Awards for Academic Year 2002-2003. In 2018 Ehrman was awarded one of the three Distinguished Teaching Awards by the СƬƵ Alumni Association.
Along with Professor Joseph L. Baird of СƬƵ’s Department of English, Ehrman was co-author of three volumes of translations of the complete extant correspondence of St. Hildegard of Bingen (The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen, Oxford University Press, 1994, 1998, 2004). Among his articles, three that he considers his most outstanding are: “Terentian Prologues and the Parabases of Old Comedy,” (Latomus, 1985) – this one seems to have received the most mentions in the literature on Roman comedy; “The Cornicula Ascribed to Plautus” (Rheinishes Museum für Philologie, 1993) and “Glaucumam ob Oculos Obiciemus: Forbidden Sight in Miles Gloriosus” (lllinois Classical Studies, 1997).
He was interviewed by Tony Beckwith in 2016 for the American Translators Association.
Ehrman joined СƬƵ’s Commencement and Honors Day Committee his first year at the university. He became chair of the committee 1985 and served in that position until 1992. After his retirement as chair, he served as an announcer in many subsequent commencements. Commencement is a special time at the university because on that day faculty, university administrators, students and their families come together for the sole purpose of celebrating the achievement of the students and those who have given their financial and emotional support. It is always a joyful time where everyone involved is focused on that one aspect of university life.
In other service, Ehrman has served on a wide variety of committees and the department, college, and university level, including Faculty Advisory Committee, College Advisory Committee, University Citation and Recognition Committee, The Inaugural Planning Committee for the installation of Carol Cartwright as University President in 1991 and the Departmental Merger Committee in AY 1992-1993.
In Summer 2012 Ehrman served as an advisor to a student for the McNair Scholars Program in Summer, 2012.
Since 1991, Ehrman has also served as the advisor for the Epsilon Eta Chapter of Eta Sigma Phi, the national honors society for Classical Studies.