Barbara Nietzche Tobias Fund Established
Professor Richard Tobias has established the Barbara Nietzsche Tobias Fund in the Department of English in memory of his late wife. Income from this endowment, to which Tobias plans to contribute $24,000 each year, will support a dissertation year fellowship for doctoral students in English.
Barbara Nietzsche Tobias, Library and Information Sciences '67, was associate editor of CAS Dean Mary Briscoe's Bibliography of American Autobiography: 1945-1980. She also worked in the University Archives in Hillman Library and was the research assistant for Pitt: 1787-1987, by Robert Alberts, CAS '30, which celebrates the University's bicentennial.
A member of the Pitt faculty since 1957, Richard Tobias has taught such undergraduate courses as 19th Century British Literature, Shakespeare, Modern Poetry, the Comic Idea, and various writing courses. At the graduate level he has taught courses on Matthew Arnold, Robert Browning, Wordsworth, Dickens, the Victorian Novel, Comedy, and research methods. His publications include The Art of James Thurber, Shakespeare's Late Plays (co-edited with Paul G. Zollbrod), and T.E. Brown, the Manx Poet.
Richard Tobias has twice served as president of the University Senate. He also served as academic dean of Semester at Sea and has been active on numerous University committees. With Professor Fil Hearn of the Department of the History of Art and Architecture, he developed and helped teach the first CAS London Semester.