Born Feb. 7, 1942
Waterbury, Connecticut
Died Jan. 31, 2025
Burlington, Vermont
Details of services
A gathering of friends will be held on Thursday, February 6th from 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. at the Ready Funeral Home – South Chapel, 261 Shelburne Road, Burlington. The evening will conclude with a brief prayer service. Interment will be private in the spring.
Alfred Felix Rosa, of South Burlington, Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Vermont, died peacefully on January 31, 2025.
Al was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, on February 7, 1942, to Gerard and Lucy Rosa. He attended Naugatuck, Connecticut schools and graduated from the University of Connecticut in 1964. He continued his education in American Literature at Farleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey and earned his Master’s degree (1966) and Ph.D. (1971) from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. While at UMass, he founded Massachusetts Studies in English, a graduate student journal published until 1992.
Al married his college sweetheart Margaret (Maggie) Shafran in 1967, and they welcomed their daughter Elizabeth (Liz) four years later.
In 1969, Al and Maggie moved to Vermont where he launched his 34-year teaching career at the University of Vermont, with a focus on American Literature, expository writing, and editing and publishing. Early on, he was awarded a Fulbright-Hays lectureship to teach American Language and Literature at the University of Sassari in Sardinia, Italy. This experience was the seed for his ground-breaking course on Italian American literature, a course that combined his own heritage and scholarship with the literary contributions of Italian American writers within the context of the immigrant struggle and assimilation. He was a frequent lecturer on the history of Italians and stone carving in Barre, Vermont.
Perhaps Al’s proudest professional accomplishments came from his partnership with his English department colleague Paul Eschholz. Starting at UVM the same year, the pair became fast friends, sharing a background in American literature, linguistics, and writing. Through their 56 years of collaboration, they co-authored 9 textbooks, most of which went into multiple editions. Three of their books are still in print 50 years after they were first published. Together, they also received the largest (at the time) grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to create the Vermont Writing Program, a first-of-its-kind statewide initiative designed to teach Vermont elementary and high school teachers and administrators how to teach writing to their students. In 1978, they co-founded The New England Press with a goal of publishing high-quality books of Vermont and New England interest.
For many years, Al served the university community beyond the classroom by combining his academic background with his love of basketball as the academic advisor for the UVM men’s basketball team. His interactions with the coaches and young men on those teams brought him great joy, and he remained close to many of them through the years.
Coming from a family of classical musicians, Al reinvigorated a childhood hobby by taking up the violin again when he retired, even once performing with the VT Philharmonic. He and Maggie took great pleasure being avid concert goers and supporters of the Vermont Youth Orchestra, the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, and the Eleva Chamber Players.
Al is survived by his wife Maggie, his daughter Liz and son-in-law Paul, his brother Paul, his sister-in-law Linda, his aunt Virginia, and several nieces and nephews. He also considered his friends and students from his time in Italy as family. He was predeceased by his parents and his brother Gerard.
A gathering of friends will be held on Thursday, February 6th from 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. at the Ready Funeral Home – South Chapel, 261 Shelburne Road, Burlington. The evening will conclude with a brief prayer service. Interment will be private in the spring. In lieu of flowers, please consider honoring Al’s memory with a donation to the UVM Men’s Basketball Excellence Fund, c/o Maureen Magarity, UVM Foundation, 411 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401 or the Vermont Youth Orchestra, Elley-Long Music Center, 223 Ethan Allen Avenue, Colchester, VT 05446.
Arrangements are in the care of Ready Funeral & Cremation Services. To share online condolences, please visit www.readyfuneral.com.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Alfred Felix Rosa.