Joseph G. Price

Joseph Gerard Price May 25, 1928 December 17, 2012 Joseph Gerard Price, 84, died unexpect- edly of cardiac arrest on Dec. 17. He was born in Philadelphia in 1928, to the late Edward Price and Rose Conway Price. Dr. Price was Professor Emeritus in Penn State University's English Department. He joined the department in 1968, retiring in 1996, after 28 years on the faculty. Previously, he taught at Bowling Green State University, Ohio, and earlier, at Villanova University. He specialized in Shakespeare, Renaissance literature, and drama on the graduate and undergraduate levels. He directed theses and dissertations in these areas and served the department as Director of English Graduate Studies for a number of years. As a youth, the scholarship he received to the Jesuit high school, St. Joseph's Preparatory School, in Philadelphia, proved definitive to his future, as he always appreciated. Afterward he attended St. Joseph's University there. He was a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, stationed from 1951-54 as an educator and counselor at the former Sampson Air Force Base, Geneva, N.Y. Pursuing an academic career, he earned a Master's degree in English from Georgetown University, followed by a Ph.D. in 1961, from Bryn Mawr College. He was mentored there by Professor Arthur Colby Sprague, the international scholar of Shakespearean stage history and theatrical criticism. His work with him shaped his scholarly point of view for his entire career. His first book, The Unfortunate Comedy: A Study of All's Well that Ends Well and Its Critics (Universities of Liverpool and Toronto Presses, 1968), was the first book-length study of a long-neglected Shakespearean play. It traces the play's theatrical as well as its critical history, providing the basis for his new critical interpretation. Among his other books and articles, Professor Price's final volume, Shakespeare in the Worlds of Communism and Socialism, edited with Irena Makaryk (University of Toronto Press, 2006), combined his expertise both in world politics and contemporary Shakespearean performance. Invited by the National Endowment for the Humanities, he was offered a major three-year grant to bring together an innovative international collaboration of scholars and theatrical practitioners to investigate and share for the first time the popularity and the complicated experience of Shakespeare in Iron Curtain countries during the Soviet era. He traveled to Moscow, Berlin, Weimar, and later to Beijing, to meet with team members who were abroad. In 1994 and 1995, the entire group met collectively, first at a pre-conference hosted by Penn State and then at the public conference held by the Folger Shakespeare Library and the Russian Embassy in Washington, DC. Professor Price is survived by his wife of over 39 years, Jeanne T. Newlin. His first marriage to the late Ruth Cassady Price ended in divorce. Three children by the marriage survive him: Paul Price (Theresa), of Princeton, N.J., Ann Price. of Temecula, Calif., and Jane Price (Doug Smith), of Santa Fe, N.M. He has four grandchildren, Nicole Price, Kevin Gardner, Elizabeth Price, and Catherine Price, along with numerous nieces and nephews, and many in-laws. His sister, Margaret Price Bolger, survives him; his half-sisters and -brother, Marie Price, Eleanor Smith, and Edward Price predeceased him. A memorial celebration of the life of Joseph Price is being held privately. Arrangements under the direction of Wetzler Funeral Services, Inc. Bellefonte, PA.