Phyllis Roth became involved in faculty governance and administrative concerns from the start of her teaching career at Skidmore as a specialist in critical theory. In subsequent years, as chair of the English department and later as dean of the faculty, she lavished her prodigious energy, intelligence, and imagination with increasing vigor on promoting the prestige of the college, launching and overseeing initiatives in collaborative research and the development of a teaching museum on campus, to mention only two examples; and even while acutely ill she never ceased nurturing the careers of former students and longtime friendships, including ours. In short, though Phyllis managed to complete and publish a book on Bram Stoker, her commitment to Skidmore left her little time to pursue all her personal enthusiasms.

Yet her love of Nabokov never waned. She kept abreast of postings on the N-list, on occasion contributing one of her own, and after returning fulltime to the classroom she was ingenious in finding ways to justify a place in her syllabi for Lolita.  And no matter what, even during the worst of times at the college, it was our habit to remind each other that academic bliss was having a fellow Nabokovian in the next office.        

My thanks to Brian Boyd for his query. Ditto for comments from Susan Sweeney, Anthony Stadlen, Zoran Kuzmanovitch, and Don Johnson.  Phyllis would have greatly appreciated your interest and recollections.

Ralph A. Ciancio

Professor Emeritus of English

Skidmore College, North Broadway

Saratoga Springs, NY 12866

Email:  rciancio@retired.skidmore.edu

Telephone: 518/584-9264