Al Cate, Longtime Colleague and Victorian Specialist, Passes Away

George Allan Cate passed away on Wednesday, September 5, 2012.

Al Cate received a BA from Rutgers University in 1960 and a PhD from Duke University in 1968. He began teaching at the University of Maryland, while still ABD, in 1964. He was appointed as assistant professor in 1967 and promoted to associate professor in 1984. He retired from the University in 2007.

Al was a specialist in Victorian studies, publishing a number of articles as well as an edition, The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and John Ruskin (Stanford Univ. Press, 1982), and a bibliographic study, John Ruskin: A Reference Guide (G.K. Hall, 1988). He taught a wide variety of classes in English literary history and advised numerous graduate theses. He received the University of Maryland Outstanding Teacher Award in 1987 and served the English department as director of undergraduate advising and as director of the departmental honors program. He was also an assistant dean in the College of Arts and Humanities (then called the College of Arts and Sciences). He served as well on numerous departmental, college, and university committees.

Al was especially active in the scholarly worlds of Ruskin and Carlyle studies, and he frequently taught courses in literature of the fin-de-siècle and the Edwardian period. He had a prodigious knowledge of nineteenth- and twentieth-century British literature, ranging among the poetry, novels, and nonfiction prose of the Victorians in particular.

Al Cate was 77 at his death. He is survived by his son Jonathan. At this time, we are not aware of any planned funeral services.