Frederick William Willey, Jr. ’47

Frederick William Willey, Jr. ’47 died on June 6, 2006, in Burlington, North Carolina.

Born on May 14, 1926, in Indiana, PA, he prepared for college at Shady Side Academy in Pittsburgh, PA, and became a member of Chi Psi Fraternity at Bowdoin, which he attended in 1944 before serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II from 1944 to 1946, attaining the rank of radioman 3rd class.After returning to the College in 1946 he graduated cum laude in 1949 and then did graduate work in English at Harvard University, from which received a master of arts degree in 1951 and his doctor of philosophy degree in 1960. He was a member of the faculty at the University of Connecticut in 1955-56, at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY, from 1956 to 1959, and at Boston University from 1959 to 1965. In that year he joined the English department at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, where he taught for more than twenty years. He was active in the affairs of the Agassiz Neighborhood Council and the Maud Morgan Visual Arts Center, as well as the Cambridge Family YMCA. He was the author of articles on the novel in Southern Review and Michigan Quarterly, as well as articles in other publications. Surviving are his son, Peter Willey of Somerville, MA; a daughter, Kate Shaw of Strafford,VT; and a sister, Diane W. Green of Sylvania, Ohio.