Edward T. Gargan

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University of Wisconsin-Madison Faculty Document 1126
3 April 1995

MEMORIAL RESOLUTION OF THE FACULTY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON

ON THE DEATH OF EMERITUS PROFESSOR EDWARD T. GARGAN

Edward T. Gargan died on January 10, 1995 at the age of 72, after being stricken by a heart attack while at work in his study. A native of New York City, he received his doctorate at Catholic University of America in Washington, D. C. Prior to joining our faculty in 1967 he had taught at Boston College, Loyola University in Chicago, and Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.

The author or co-author of several books and scores of articles, Edward Gargan was internationally recognized as a leading scholar in the field of modern French history. In 1970 he was elected president of the American Catholic Historical Association and four years later became president of the Society for French Historical Studies. In recognition of his many contributions to the study of modern French history he was awarded the Palmes académiques by the French Ministry of National Education. After his retirement in 1992, he remained actively engaged in research and writing. At the time of his death he was working on the long neglected French novelist and Nobel laureate Roger Martin du Gard. The choice of this unfashionable literary figure as the subject of his research is evidence not only of Edward Gargan's great historical flair, but also of his firm belief that the literature of a period can enrich and sustain the study of its history.

Edward Gargan's legacy as a scholar goes well beyond his published work. It lives on in the work of the twenty fine young scholars who wrote their doctoral dissertations under his supervision and are now spread throughout the American academic world. In their achievements he took great and fully justified pride; over the years he kept in close touch with them, generously offering encouragement and advice. The week before he died, he had gone to Chicago for the American Historical Association Convention in order to attend a number of sessions in which some of his former students were presenting papers. Back in Madison, he recalled that experience with great pleasure.

To his colleagues and friends Edward Gargan was more than a highly respected scholar whose broad intellectual interests ranged well beyond his chosen field of specialization. He was also a loyal and generous friend, always willing to share his time and vast knowledge with them; a man of utter integrity and compassion, with a keen concern for social justice. Throughout his life he was inspired and sustained by a deeply rooted religious faith. This, together with the love and support of his wife Bernadette and of his sons Edward and Christopher, lent him the fortitude and the serenity that accompanied him to the end. His death is a sad loss for all those whose lives he touched. He will long be remembered. He will be greatly missed.

MEMORIAL COMMITTEE
John M. Cooper
Suzanne M. Desan
James S. Donnelly, Jr.
Robert L. Koehl
Mary Lydon
Domenico Sella, Chair

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