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AROUND THE QUADS

In Memoriam

Robert A. Maguire, the Boris Bakhmeteff professor emeritus in the department of Slavic languages and an authority on early Soviet literature and the writings of Nikolai Gogol, died on July 8. He was 75 and lived in Morningside Heights.

Maguire was born in Canton, Mass. He graduated from Dartmouth in 1951 and served in the Army. Maguire earned a certificate from SIPA in 1953 and a Ph.D. in Slavic languages from GSAS in 1960 and was appointed to the Columbia faculty a year later. Maguire was promoted to full professor in 1970 and was named Bakhmeteff Professor of Russian Studies in 1992. He chaired the department of Slavic languages in the 1970s and 80s and retired in 2003.

In his teaching career, Maguire concentrated on 19th- and 20th-century Russian literature. He wrote a standard text, Red Virgin Soil: Soviet Literature in the 1920’s as well as Exploring Gogol, for which he won a prize from the Modern Language Association in 1995 for outstanding work in Slavic languages and literature. Maguire translated works of prose and poetry from Russian and Polish, including, with John Earl Malmstad, Andrei Bely’s Petersburg. He recently finished a new translation of Dostoyevsky’s Demons.

Maguire was a past president of the American Gogol Society. An accomplished viola player, he was also on the board of the amateur Chamber Music Conference. He is survived by a brother, Thomas.

Transition

Sabrena Gant and Harold “Hal” Jones have joined the Alumni Office. Gant, who worked in alumni affairs at SEAS for nearly two years, is an Alumni Affairs officer focusing on student development. Jones, who had been an events coordinator at Barnard, is a development officer for the Columbia College Fund. In addition, Karri Brady has been promoted to director of the College Fund, Patrick O’Connell has been promoted to senior assistant director of the College Fund and Susan Murray now is director of the Young Alumni Fund.

Gerry Fischbach has resigned as dean of the Faculty of Medicine and executive v.p. for health and biomedical sciences. He will remain until the end of the academic year, or until a successor is appointed.

Joe Ienuso has been named v.p. for academic and residential facilities. Ienuso, formerly acting v.p. of facilities, will oversee responsibilities that had previously been divided between Institutional Real Estate and Facilities Management on the Morningside campus. His organization will be responsible for public safety, graduate student housing and faculty housing, as well as academic, administrative and athletic facilities on the Morningside campus.

Philip Silverman has been named v.p. for real estate, responsible for the acquisition and disposition of University real estate and overseeing the University’s commercial leasing transactions, both as landlord and tenant.

Maxine Griffith, who most recently was executive director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission and the secretary for strategic planning, is the University’s new v.p. for government and community affairs. She is responsible for the oversight and coordination of Columbia’s collaborations with government officials at the local, state and federal levels, as well as the strengthening of Columbia’s many partnerships with local organizations and government and community leaders.

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