I was saddened to learn of the death of Michael Cavanagh in August 2017. The English department at Grinnell holds a special place in my heart as an English major and 1974 graduate — Michael Cavanagh, Edward Moore, James Kissane ’52, Peter Connelly, among others at the time.
I am grateful to Grinnell for the education that I received, for the opportunities afforded me, and for the socially and politically charged debates to be had and lessons to be learned. The times were tumultuous, but I have fond memories of studying Joyce, Woolf, Auden, Yeats, Keats, Shelley, Milton, and Shakespeare in hallowed halls.
I still have my notebook on modern British literature from Cavanagh’s class. And evidently through the years, more offerings followed: A Joycean walk through Dublin, poetry-writing classes, a book on Seamus Heaney. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam. Thank you.