Oct. 29, 2024

It is with great sadness that the URI Department of English announces the death, on Sept. 25, of Professor Emeritus John R. Leo, from Alzheimer’s disease. An irrepressible quipster with a sharp intellect and even sharper tongue, John leaves behind many friends, not a few enemies, and several generations of students who learned from his own example to question authority (with a cackle).

Jubilantly queer himself, John was long a champion of GLBTQ+ humans, cultures, and causes. There was never a time in his life when he was not out of the closet, according to his closest friends. He was very generous to people in need, whether they were his friends, tenants, students, or strangers. He was also loquacious and unfiltered, to a degree that sometimes got him into serious trouble. At the same time, however, his exuberant aliveness also modeled new ways of being for anyone who encountered him.

John Leo was born in Minnesota in 1943 but moved as a young child to Seattle. He received his bachelor’s degree in English from Yale University in 1965 and completed his doctorate in 1972, also in English, at Northwestern University.

From the beginning of his career at URI in 1973 until his retirement in 2013, John taught a wide array of courses in English, film, and comparative literature. He also served as interim chair of English, director of comparative literature studies, and director of film media. In addition to teaching at URI, John taught as a Fulbright Scholar at both the Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Poland and Constantine the Philosopher University in Slovakia, and as a Hugh Le May Fellow at Rhodes University, in South Africa.

John’s scholarly interests were as interdisciplinary and cosmopolitan and his achievements as impressive as his teaching record. In addition to publishing over 12 journal essays and book chapters, he edited the Guide to American Poetry Explication, vol. 2, Modern and Contemporary, (G.K. Hall, 1989),coedited two scholarly collections: Projecting Words, Writing Images:  Intersections of the Textual and the Visual in American Cultural Practices (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2011) and Working Sites: Texts, Territories, and Cultural Capital in American Cultures (VU University Press, 2004) and edited a special issue of American Transcendentalist Quarterly, “Nineteenth-Century Constructions of the Masculine.”

At the end of his life, John was made comfortable by the staff of Steere House and Hope Hospice, in Providence. He was grateful to them for their excellent care. (The nurses at Steere House report that even in his final days, he would appreciate them in sudden bursts of energy by saying, “Kissypoos!”) He passed away peacefully in the company of his beloved friends Gary White, Liz Cheng, and Jerry Cadolla.

In keeping with John’s wishes, a memorial party, in lieu of a memorial service, will be announced in the near future.

Written by Professor Carolyn Betensky