faculty emerti

Kit Reed died on Sunday, Sept. 24, in Los Angeles, Calif., at the age of 85. After several post-college years as an award-winning journalist, Kit Reed moved to Middletown in 1960 when her husband, Joe Reed, took a position with Wesleyan’s English Department. Kit Reed became a visiting professor of English in 1974, an adjunct professor of English in 1987, and resident writer in 2008. A former Guggenheim fellow, Reed was the first American recipient of an international literary grant from the Abraham Woursell Foundation. Her work has been nominated for the Locus Award, the Campbell Award, the World Fantasy…

Richard Winslow, the John Spencer Camp Professor of Music, Emeritus, died July 24, 2017 at the age of 99. A service will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 1 at the Antrim Baptist Church, 85 Main St. in Antrim, N.H. All are welcome. Winslow received his BA in English from Wesleyan with the Class of 1940, and his BS and MS from the Julliard School. He joined the Wesleyan faculty in 1949 and taught music here for 34 years until he retired in 1983. During this time, he advocated for and oversaw the establishment of Wesleyan’s renowned program in…

Starting next fall, the Wasch Center for Retired Faculty will begin a two-year pilot program, "Wesleyan Emeritus College," to encourage thesis tutorials between undergraduates and retired faculty members. During this pilot, 11 retired faculty participants have been specifically approved to administer tutorials for credit by their parent departments. Richard Elphick, professor of history, emeritus, taught at Wesleyan from 1972 to 2015. His interests are African history, comparative imperialism, revolutions, theory of history, and the history of Christianity. “I would be interested in supervising theses focusing on the following areas: History of Christianity, Africa (especially South Africa), imperialism, World War I and II,…

Sheila Gaudon, professor of romance languages and literatures, emerita, died on Feb. 19 at the age of 83. Born in Liverpool, England, Gaudon received a BA from Manchester University, and a “Docteur de l’Université des Sciences humaines de Strasbourg.” She joined the Wesleyan faculty in 1970 and taught French literature courses in the Romance Languages and Literatures Department for 23 years. She served as director of the Wesleyan Program in Paris several times and as department chair. Gaudon was an active scholar whose research focused on Victor Hugo. She worked extensively with the National Scientific Research Centre (CNRS) in Paris…

Ákos Östör, professor of anthropology and film, emeritus, lectured and presented his latest film, In My Mother's House, at more than a dozen universities in India, Turkey and throughout Europe in 2016. On a random Thursday in 2005, Östör's wife, Lina Fruzzetti, opened a a startling email that read, “If this is your father, we are cousins.” In My Mother's House follows a decade-long quest to learn more about Fruzzetti's Italian father who died young in Italian-ruled Eritrea, and her Eritrean mother who does not dwell on the past. Above all, Fruzzetti strives to understand her far-flung African, European, and…

Arthur Reinhold Upgren, the John Monroe Van Vleck Professor of Astronomy, Emeritus, died on Jan. 21, a month before his 84th birthday. Upgren received his PhD from Case Western Reserve University before coming to Wesleyan as an assistant professor in 1966. He was the Director of the Van Vleck Observatory from 1973 to 1993. He held his endowed chair from 1982 until his retirement in 2000. Upgren was an author or co-author of 285 publications in the astronomical literature, including one that appeared in 2016. His research interests were in the areas of parallax (distance measurement) of stars and galactic…

William Wistar "Wis" Comfort II, the Edward Burr Van Vleck Professor of Mathematics, Emeritus, died Nov. 28 at the age of 83. Comfort received his BA from Haverford College, and an MSc and PhD from the University of Washington (Seattle) and was an expert on point-set topology, ultrafilters, set theory and topological groups. He joined the Wesleyan faculty in 1967 after teaching at Harvard, University of Rochester and University of Massachusetts (Amherst). Comfort taught in the mathematics department for 40 years until his retirement in 2007, where he supervised 17 PhD theses and three MA theses. He was a key…

William J. Barber, the Andrews Professor of Economics, Emeritus, died Oct. 26 at the age of 91. A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m., Jan. 28 in Memorial Chapel with a reception to follow in Daniel Family Commons. Barber arrived at Wesleyan in 1957 after receiving his BA from Harvard University and completing a Rhodes Scholarship and earning a BA, MA and Doctor of Philosophy from Oxford University. He taught at Wesleyan for 37 years before retiring in 1994. Barber was actively engaged in the leadership of the University throughout his time at Wesleyan. He was a founding member…

On May 7, Master drummer Abraham Adzenyah, adjunct professor of music, emeritus, was honored with a ceremony, farewell concerts, and reunion featuring past and present students (View photo set here). Adzenyah taught West African music, dance and culture at Wesleyan for 46 years and retired in May. During the event, Adzenyah was honored with the naming of the Abraham Adzenyah Rehearsal Hall (formerly the Center for the Arts Rehearsal Hall). This is the first time that a leading U.S. university has named a building after a traditional African musician. In addition, grateful students, alumni and friends have raised more than $225,000 to establish the…

The Telegraph (UK) is reporting that a recently-discovered dinosaur from the Cretaceous Period (about 110 million years ago) has been named Brontomerus mcintoshi for John S. “Jack” McIntosh, Foss Professor of Physics, emeritus. The fossil, discovered in Utah, is marked by its large, powerful thighs which may have been used to kick predators and travel over rough terrain. The American-British team of scientists who discovered the remains named the dinosaur for McIntosh, “a lifelong avocational paleontologist.” According to the article, it's possible that Brontomerus mcintoshi was more athletic than most other sauropods. It is well established that far from being…

John Paoletti, the William R. Kenan Professor of the Humanities emeritus, spoke on “‘Learn My Language: Strategies of Medici Patronage in Renaissance Florence” Nov. 24 at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Paoletti is currently a Macgeorge Fellow at The University of Melbourne. Co-author of Art in Renaissance Italy, a standard text on the subject (now in its third edition), he has also published widely on issues of patronage and on Michelangelo, and is currently completing a book on Michelangelo’s David. He co-edited a benchmark collection of essays – Renaissance Florence: A Social History (Cambridge University Press, 2006/2008) – which Bill…

Resident Writer Reed Remembered for being a Fierce Advocate for Students, Fiction

Winslow Remembered for Establishing World Music Program

Wesleyan Emeritus College Offers Theses Supervised by Retired Faculty

Gaudon Remembered for Scholarly Research on Victor Hugo

Östör Debuts New Film to International Audiences

Upgren Remembered for Protecting Night Sky from Light Pollution

Comfort Remembered for Teaching Mathematics 40 Years at Wesleyan

Barber Remembered as a Founding Member of the College of Social Studies

Master Drummer Adzenyah Celebrated at Ceremony, Hall Dedication

“Thunder-Thighs” Dinosaur Honors Professor Emeritus Jack McIntosh

Paoletti Speaks on Medici Patronage