“A much loved and widely celebrated member of the Lake Forest College faculty for more than half a century, Rosemary was irreplaceable and will be deeply missed,” says President Stephen Schutt.

After arriving at the College in 1955, Rosemary spent her entire career here, imparting her passion for English literature, her insistence on clear thinking and sharp writing, and her expansive love of life to generations of students. For many years to come, whenever they encounter classic poems, these students will hear the echo of Rosemary’s magical voice reading aloud, as she did so often in her classroom.

Rosemary received her BA degree from Douglass College of Rutgers University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with highest honors in English. Years later, in 1989, her alma mater honored her with its Alumni Award for Distinguished Service. After Douglass, Rosemary earned her MA from Indiana University and PhD from Yale.

At Lake Forest College, Rosemary specialized in English literature of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, advanced steadily through the faculty ranks and was promoted to Full Professor in 1968. In 1986, she became the inaugural occupant of the Hotchkiss Presidential Chair, which she occupied until her retirement in 1995.

Rosemary’s shining presence in the English Department cannot be overestimated. She taught at every level and in most areas of English literature. She served as mentor and guide for generations of younger faculty and, as chair from 1976 through 1985, she helped shape the department’s curriculum and vision. Rosemary also served on most of the College’s elected committees, and as Faculty Marshal from 1974 to 1995. A major force in the establishment of the College’s Phi Beta Kappa chapter in 1962, she served as the chapter’s Secretary until her retirement.

In 1990 Rosemary was appointed the Director of our Master of Liberal Studies program.  In this key role she recruited and taught dozens of graduate students, stamping the program with her inspirational identity.

Long fascinated by the College’s institutional history, Rosemary dug deeply into our archives and, with co-authors Franz Schulze and Arthur Miller, wrote the celebrated volume Thirty Miles North. Published in the year 2000, this book tells the special story of the College’s founding, development and growth. In a more recent project that once again engaged her literary and editorial talents, Rosemary wrote the inscriptions gracing a series of plaques honoring retired Lake Forest faculty that alumni Mike and Paula Dau have mounted inside the Donnelley and Lee Library.

Over the course of her career Rosemary received numerous awards, including grants from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Ford Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 1981, she was honored by the Inland Steel-Ryerson Foundation as Outstanding Teacher of the Year.

Rosemary’s academic publications include The Prose Works of Alexander Pope, Volume II:  The Major Works 1725-1744 (Archon Press, Hamden, Conn., and Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1986), which provides a crucial resource for eighteenth-century studies, and for which she received the Rose Mary Crawshay Prize of the British Academy. In 1966 she published an essay on Pope titled “Shadow and Substance:  A Discussion of Pope’s Correspondence,” in The Familiar Letter in the Eighteenth Century (University of Kansas Press, 1966).  She also edited Twentieth Century Interpretations of Pamela (Prentice Hall 1969).

An active member of her local community, Rosemary served as a Trustee of Lake Forest Academy, as President of the Lake Forest Library Board from 1972 to 1979, and as a member of the Board of the Friends of Lake Forest Library from 1987 to 1993.  She was also a long-standing and active member of the Coterie, a local women’s discussion group.

A celebration of Rosemary’s life will be scheduled later this spring.  Contributions in her memory may be made to Lake Forest College.