Dante scholar Iliescu of FAS and Extension School dies at 88

By Ken Gewertz

Harvard News Office

Nicolae Iliescu, a professor of medieval and Renaissance Italian literature who taught for many years in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and in the Extension School, died Nov. 25 at the age of 88.

Remembered as a devoted and inspiring teacher and an accomplished scholar, Iliescu was best known at Harvard for his courses on Dante’s “Divine Comedy.” Those who were familiar with his life story, however, knew that his vocation as an American university professor had come about as the result of an unlikely convergence of talent, chance meetings, and the tides of history.

Born in the tiny village of Constantinesti in Romania, Iliescu, who often described himself as “a peasant at heart,” spent his childhood on his parents’ farm, working in the fields, tending the sheep, and roaming barefoot in the surrounding mountains. In addition to farming, his father worked as a schoolteacher and his mother raised silkworms.

After attending local schools, Iliescu became a student at the University of Bucharest, but after two years his education was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II. Conscripted unwillingly into the Romanian army (Romania joined the Axis Powers in 1940 but switched sides in 1944), Iliescu saw action on the Russian front. When the tide began to turn against Germany, he deserted and headed west, eventually resuming his education at the University of Padua, Italy, where he earned his first doctorate.

After a year of postdoctoral study on a UNESCO fellowship, Iliescu emigrated to the United States where he edited a Romanian-language newspaper in Cleveland, and later worked on the Ford Motor Co. assembly line. It was also during his years in Cleveland that he met and married his wife, Esther (née Gheta).

Encouraged by another Romanian scholar, Iliescu applied and was accepted to Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. He earned a second doctorate there in only two years, and in 1958 was hired by the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures as an instructor in Italian. He became a full professor in 1968 and retired from Harvard in 1989.

Ivan Galantic, a fellow faculty member at Harvard Extension School and a close friend since the two met as displaced persons in Italy in the late 1940s, described Iliescu as a man of strong faith. “He was a Christian as Dante was a Christian.”

Galantic, who still teaches art history at the Extension School, said of Iliescu, “I don’t know of anyone so at peace with himself on the basis of clear thinking about the fundamental values of life.”

He said that while he and Iliescu found themselves on opposite sides of many philosophical and political questions, they very much enjoyed exchanging ideas.

“I needed him to challenge my position, and I think it was the other way around as well.”

Marlies Mueller, senior preceptor in Romance languages and literatures, said that Iliescu was “a wonderful colleague and very, very erudite.” She added that as a person, “he had a strict sense of honor. He felt that there is right and wrong, and he stood up for what he thought was right against all odds.”

Iliescu, who taught courses on Dante and Boccaccio at the Extension School until well into his 70s, said in an article in The Lamplighter (the Extension School newsletter) that he preferred teaching in the Extension School to teaching at Harvard College. The reason was that a large portion of his students took his courses purely for the love of learning rather than to earn a degree or to advance themselves in their careers. These students, he said, “have studied with me because of their love of literature and because they truly wanted to learn what I love to teach.”

Extension School Dean Michael Shinagel remembers Iliescu as “a dedicated teacher, a distinguished scholar, and a courtly man who cared about his students and was much admired by them.”

Like St. Nicholas, for whom he was named, Iliescu was especially kind and generous to children, said his daughter Doina. “My father always carried candies in his pockets, and whenever he encountered a child he would offer a piece of candy as a kind gesture,” she said.

Iliescu’s publications include the books “Da Manzoni a Nievo: Considerazioni sul romanzo italiano” (1959) and “Il canzoniere petrarchesco e Sant’Agostino” (1962), and many journal articles.

He served as president of the Dante Society of America from 1973 to 1979. He was a member of the Academy of Medieval Studies and the American Society of Renaissance Studies, and a member and collaborator of the Society of Romanian Academics of Rome. He received the Premio della Cultura from the Italian government and the Medaglia della Cultura from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Iliescu is survived by his brothers Octavian and Virgil in Romania, his wife Esther, their daughters Rodica and Doina, and one granddaughter, Emily. A funeral service for Iliescu was held at St. Mary’s Orthodox Church in Cleveland on Nov. 30. He was buried at Sunset Memorial Park in North Olmstead, Ohio. A memorial service will be held later this winter.