September 2008

President’s Page

Dear AIHA Members,

The fall season is just around the corner as we prepare for our 41st annual conference—“Small Towns, Big Cities: The Urban Experience of Italian Americans” at Southern Connecticut State University on November 6-8, 2008. If members haven’t already registered for the conference, we encourage you to do so now in order to benefit from the conference hotel rates. Based on the many incarnations of the program, the focus and topics look rich, indeed. We are honored to have as our Keynote Speaker, Professor William Boelhower of Louisiana State University who will speak on the place of Little Italy and its development into urban spaces in many regions throughout the country. I must also express heart-felt thanks to members of AIHA, especially Anthony Tamburri, Josephine Hendin, Dawn Esposito, Fred Gardaphe, John Paul Russo and Jennifer Di Gregorio Kightlinger, for helping to assemble the original program, and to our Web Manager, JoAnne Ruvoli, for working steadily with me to make changes throughout the past three months. We are all working closely with local chair, Professor Michael Vena of Southern Connecticut State University, to make our annual conference an inspiring and comfortable experience.

Sad news to share with those members who had not heard of the death of founder and first President of the American Italian Historical Association, Rudolph J. Vecoli, who died peacefully on June 17, 2008, of complications from acute leukemia. Rudi was 81 and a retired University of Minnesota historian, and longtime director of the Immigration History Research Center. My “immigration” experience with Rudi began in 1991 when a research grant brought me to the doors of the old IHRC, where I poured over the Italian documents for a luxurious week, eating lunch daily with Rudi and his wife in the small lunchroom. That early connection with Rudi helped me in all kinds of ways, but mostly, I was grateful for Rudi’s generosity toward me with materials I did not know about. A burgeoning literary critic, I was treated in 1991 with all the respect and deference of the established national and international historians who have visited the Center; I will never forget the kindness of the administrative staff there and Rudi’s welcoming gestures.

The College of Liberal Arts as part of the University’s Campaign Minnesota has endowed a professorship in honor of Rudolph J. Vecoli in Immigration Research History, underscoring Rudi’s leadership and the rise to prominence of IHRC in immigration scholarship.

On behalf of the American Italian Historical Association Officers, Executive Committee and Members, we honored Rudolph Vecoli through a donation to a memorial endowment named after his beloved parents, Settima Palmerini and Giovanni Vecoli on behalf of the University of Minnesota Foundation.

Rudi Vecoli’s own achievements as a first-rate historian, the founding director of the Immigration History Research Center, and the American Italian Historical Society illuminate the breadth of his talents and the commitment to scholarly study. In closing, I want to express my deepest condolences on behalf of our organization on Rudi’s passing and invite members to attend the Plenary Session organized in honor of Dr. Vecoli at 9:00 am on Saturday, November 8th, 2008 at the AIHA conference in New Haven. Please join us.

In the meantime, I wish all AIHA members un buon autunno and a presto novembre,

Mary Jo

Past President's Pages:
April 2008
October 2007
June 2007