In Memoriam: Frank McCourt

The Skidmore community notes with sadness the death Sunday, July 19, 2009, of author Frank McCourt, to whom Skidmore awarded an honorary doctor of letters degree at Commencement 2001.  Mr. McCourt won the Pulitzer Prize for his memoir Angela?s Ashes, which he wrote after retiring as an English teacher in New York City?s public schools. The book tells his story of an impoverished childhood in Limerick, Ireland.

One line from the book is especially telling.  Mr. McCourt wrote, ?When I look back on my childhood, I wonder how I survived at all.?  The Brooklyn, N.Y., native did survive and returned to New York City, where he taught for 30 years, encouraging students to tell their stories and to appreciate the power of their own histories.

At the Commencement ceremony in 2001 Una Bray, associate professor of mathematics, introduced the author, explaining that he ?escaped from Limerick through a combination of faith, hope and charity:  faith in your own strength of character and intelligence; hope to find a wider, intellectually energizing world; and charity from those along the way who, recognizing your rare spirit, stopped to help.?

She continued, ?Frank McCourt, you told us secrets of so many past lives, stories that have been buried, stories that illuminate our parents? and our grandparents? struggles to survive, to leave the past, and to invent a future as Americans.  In shining volumes of autobiography, you speak to all of us?Irish or not?who share a heritage of striving, longing, and realizing our deepest dreams.?