Dear Colleagues,

I share with you sad news of the passing of two members of our UWM community.

Francis Xavior Baron
Dr. Francis Xavior “Xave” Baron, Professor Emeritus of English in the College of Letters and Science at UW-Milwaukee, passed away on December 18, 2020.

Xavier attended St. John Benedictine Seminary school, which helped form the basis for achieving a Doctorate in English Literature from the University of Iowa. He then moved to Wisconsin and joined UW-Milwaukee as a faculty member in the English Department. Among his works, he published a three-volume anthology, London: 1066-1914, that showed his enthusiasm for the City of London and its cultural history. He also produced work for the Museum of London and taught English Literature as a visiting scholar in England and Germany. After a 37 year career teaching at UWM, Xavier retired as an emeritus professor in 2003.

For additional information, please see Xavier’s obituary online.

Roy Arthur Swanson
Dr. Roy Arthur Swanson, Professor Emeritus of Classics and Comparative Literature in the College of Letters and Science at UW-Milwaukee, passed away on December 15, 2020.

Roy served in the U.S. Army and received the Bronze Star during his tour of duty in World War II. He earned his BA, BS, and MA degrees from the University of Minnesota, and his PhD in Classical Philology from the University of Illinois. He taught at several universities before joining the faculty of the UW-Milwaukee in 1967. During his long career at UWM, he served as chair in Classics, and chair and coordinator in Comparative Literature, and had tenure in both disciplines. Along with his colleagues Father Michael Fountain and Esther Ansfield, Roy established UWM’s Holocaust Research and Information Project. He authored several books, as well as numerous book chapters and articles. Notable published academic works include Heart of Reason: Introductory Essays in Modern-World Humanities, Odi et Amo: The Complete Poetry of Catullus, and Pindar’s Odes.

Roy received several awards for distinguished teaching at UWM, and in 1998, the Comparative Literature program established a Merit Scholarship in his honor. Roy retired from UWM as an emeritus professor in 2003. Following his retirement, he wrote Blue Margin, Versions of Rhetoric, and Darkness and Rain, his first fiction novel.

For additional information, please see Roy’s obituary online.

Our condolences to Xavier’s and Roy’s families and to the many others whose lives they touched.

Take care,

Johannes

Johannes Britz
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs