The campus lost a committed champion of the underdog in June
when ROBERT A. VACCA passed away at age 63. Former students will
remember Vacca, who joined the classics department faculty in
1969, as a compassionate and inspiring teacher, someone who could
gently correct or change one's way of thinking without criticizing
or humiliating. A specialist in classical Greek language, literature
and philosophy, he won the Arts and Letters college's highest
teaching honor, the Sheedy Award, in 1973 and a universitywide
Kaneb Award for teaching excellence in 2002. He belonged to a
vanishing species: faculty who could obtain tenure by virtue of
their teaching ability rather than in combination with published
research. As it was, he rose only to the rank of assistant professor.
As a friend and former colleague explained it, he was a gifted
scholar and Socratic thinker, someone who would engage anyone
intellectually, "but just like Socrates, he didn't write it down."
Instead of publishing he focused on teaching and social justice
advocacy, which grew out of his admiration for classical democratic
ideals. Last fall while on leave because of his illness, he gave
an invited lecture on campus about Athenian democracy in which
he described the Athenians' sense of a place they all shared.
He noted that in their world, industrial pollution would have
been inconceivable because no one would think of damaging the
common space. Vacca was among the most influential members of
the editorial board of Common Sense, the campus's alternative
newspaper of liberal opinion and analysis. He successfully battled
cancer seven years ago but when diagnosed with a recurrence in
the spring of 2003 decided to forego treatment. The self-effacing
man ("He would think it was grandstanding to even speak of humility,"
a colleague says) requested that no memorial service be held.
None was.
(October 2004)
