Rita K. Gollin

Rita Kaplan Gollin (January 22, 1928 – August 7, 2022) was a professor of English and a scholar of American literature.^[1]

Rita Gollin
Born	Rita Kaplan (1928-01-22)January 22, 1928 Brooklyn, New York
Died	August 7, 2022(2022-08-07) (aged 94)
Occupation	Professor of English
Academic background
Alma mater	University of Minnesota Queens College
Academic work
Discipline	American literature
Institutions	SUNY Geneseo University of Minnesota University of Rochester
Main interests	Nathaniel Hawthorne

Life and career

Rita Gollin was born Rita Kaplan on January 22, 1928, in Brooklyn, NY. She graduated magna cum laude from Queens College with a B.A. in English in 1949, and received her M.A. in English from the University of Minnesota in 1950.^[2] She earned her doctorate in English from the same university in 1961 under Professor C. H. Foster.^[3][4]

She was a professor in the English Department at the State University of New York at Geneseo from 1967 to 2002, where she was named Distinguished Professor in 1995.^[5] Before that, she taught at the University of Minnesota and the University of Rochester.^[6][7]

She was a scholar of the life and works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, on whom she has authored several books and many articles. Her 1979 book, Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Truth of Dreams, published by the Louisiana State University Press, is consistently included in Hawthorne bibliographies. Her later publications pursued visual-textual studies, focusing on the iconography of Hawthorne portraiture, and a biography of Hawthorne's publisher's wife, "Annie Adams Fields, Woman of Letters." She also edited scholarly editions of Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter.

She received grants^[8][9] from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), as well as the Grace Ellis Ford Fellowship from the AAUW and a State University of New York Research Foundation Fellowship.^[6][10] She was president of the Nathaniel Hawthorne Society from 1981 to 1982^[11][12] and of the Northeast Modern Language Association of America (MLA) from 1978 to 1979.^[13][14]

Personal life

She married Dick Gollin in 1950. They lived in Rochester, New York, and had three children; their son Michael died of ALS.^[15] She died at 94 on August 7, 2022.

Legacy

Upon her retirement in 2002, Gollin endowed the Department of English at SUNY Geneseo with the Rita K. Gollin Scholarship for Excellence in American Literature. The award goes to one graduating senior and one junior who have demonstrated excellence in the study of American literature.^[16]

References

1. "Rita Gollin Obituary". New York Times. Retrieved September 10, 2023.
2. University of Minnesota, March Commencement, 1950. Minneapolis-Saint Paul: University of Minnesota Board of Regents. 1950. p. 17. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
3. University of Minnesota, March Commencement, 1961 (PDF). Minneapolis-Saint Paul: University of Minnesota Board of Regents. 1961. p. 61. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
4. Gollin, R. (1961). Dream and reverie in the writings of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Minneapolis-Saint Paul: Department of English, University of Minnesota.
5. "Distinguished Professorships". SUNY Geneseo. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
6. Wyld, Lionel D. (1975). American civilization, an introduction to research and bibliography (1st ed.). Deland, FL: Everett/Edwards. pp. 278–279. ISBN 9780912112039.
7. "Arts are subject of lecture series". Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, NY. September 11, 1966. p. 5M. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
8. "NEH grant details: American Woman of Letters: Annie Adams Fields, 1834-1915". National Endowment for the Humanities. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
9. "NEH grant details: Annie Fields: Woman of Letters". National Endowment for the Humanities. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
10. "18 at Geneseo State Gain Research Funds". Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, NY. December 26, 1967. p. 3B. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
11. "Abstracts of Program Papers" (pdf). The Nathaniel Hawthorne Society Newsletter. 7 (1): 1–3. 1981. JSTOR 44681734. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
12. "The Nathaniel Hawthorne Society". Past Presidents. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
13. Northeast Modern Language Association 40th Convention (PDF) (40th Anniversary ed.). Buffalo, NY: NeMLA. March 2009. p. 9. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
14. "Front matter" (pdf). Modern Language Studies. 9 (2). Battleboro, Vermont: Vermont Printing: 1–3. 1979. JSTOR 3194582. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
15. "The Gollins' Story: Happily married for 70+ years". St. John’s Senior Services, Inc. February 21, 2021. Retrieved October 1, 2021.
16. "Scholarships and Awards". SUNY Geneseo. Retrieved November 14, 2020.