Frank J. Chiarenza

1926 - 2018

Dr. Frank J. Chiarenza, Ph.D. Dr. Frank J. Chiarenza of 80 Crestview Drive in Newington passed away June 29, 2018. Born on December 10, 1926 in New Britain, CT, he attended local schools and served in the U.S. Navy as Pharmacist Mate Petty Officer in 1944-46. He received a bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1949, a master's from Rutgers University in 1950, and a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1956. He also studied medieval literature at the University of Rome under a Fulbright Scholarship in 1953. His teaching career began in 1954 at the University of Hartford where he remained for 35 years, serving as vice chairman of the English department in 1966 and advancing to full professorship in 1967. In that year he was also appointed Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and served for eleven years until 1978 when he returned to full-time teaching until his retirement in 1989. During his long tenure, he served on many faculty committees, including chairmanships of the Faculty Senate and president of the AAUP Chapter, and was the recipient of many awards and fellowships, including a Sloan Foundation Grant for study at the Institute for Professional Management at Harvard University in 1970. Popular with students he received Professor of the Year teaching awards twice, in 1961 and 1964. In 1997 he was awarded the University Medal for Distinguished Service, the highest recognition the University of Hartford can bestow on one of its own. Following his retirement, he developed a new interest in the research, study, and collecting of opaque and art glass dating from the mid-1800s to the present, resulting in his publishing a collector's book on Milk Glass in 1998 as well as many research articles in glass journals and magazines. He served a term as President of the National Milk Glass Collector's Society. In 1990 he created a glass museum in Meriden, CT under the sponsorship of the Lester Dequaine Foundation. He is survived by his two nieces, Elaine Kozlowsky, her husband Henry of Eastpoint, FL and their daughter Rachel of Plymouth, MA, and Nancy McKim, her husband John, and their son John, Jr. of East Lyme, CT. Funeral arrangements are private. Memorial donations may be sent to the Dr. Frank Chiarenza Scholarship Fund at the University of Hartford, c/o Office of Institutional Advancement, 200 Bloomfield Ave., West Hartford, CT 06117, or to a charity of your choice.