Frank S. Gado

Frank S. Gado died on June 8, 2022 after a long illness, at the age of 85. Born in Fairview, New Jersey to immigrant parents from Piemonte, northern Italy, Gado grew up in West New York, NJ. He graduated in 1958 with a degree in Philosophy from Dartmouth College, where he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. After a semester at Harvard Law School, he changed course and earned his Ph.D in Literature from Duke University.

Teaching literature and writing remained his passion throughout his professional life, most of which was spent as Professor of American literature at Union College in Schenectady, NY, where he was Chair of the English Department for several years. He was twice awarded a Fulbright fellowship to teach at Uppsala University in Sweden and a NEH grant to study the genre of autobiography. His interests also included film, and for years he ran a film program at Union College, concurrently writing his most ambitious work, The Passion of Ingmar Bergman, published in 1986. As head of Union College Press, he edited a number of works on American writers and published two studies on William Cullen Bryant.

He is survived by three children with ex-wife Gunilla (Stenman) Jacobson, of Uppsala, Sweden: Anna (John) Gado, Tobias Gado, and Carin (Steve) Gado Recks, and by his sister, Elsie (Steve) Kriso, of Hasbrouck Heights, NJ, as well as grandchildren (Olivia, Greta, and Kajsa), nephews (Stephen and David), and extended family in Italy.

After his retirement he lived in Enfield, NH and later in West Hartford, VT. He became involved in local amateur theater productions and resumed teaching in the Upper Valley, most recently in the OSHER program at Dartmouth.

A commemoration of his life will take place later this year.