Thomas Connolly, Former Joyce Scholar, Professor of English, Dies at 84

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Literary critic Thomas E. Connolly, former professor in the University at Buffalo Department of English and chair of the UB Faculty Senate, died March 18 at his home in Los Robles, Calif. He was 84.

Connelly's critical essays in English and American literature appeared widely in scholarly journals. He wrote and edited several books on the work of James Joyce, as well as "From Ararat to Suburbia: The History of the Jewish Community of Buffalo."

Connelly was born in New York City in 1918. He graduated from Fordham University and served with the U.S. Army from 1942-46. In 1948 he married the late Mary Gould and later attended graduate school at the University of Chicago, where he received an M.A. and Ph.D.

He taught at Chicago's Loyola University, the University of Idaho and Creighton University in Omaha before joining the UB faculty as an assistant professor in 1953. He became a full professor of English in 1964. He chaired the UB Faculty Senate in the late 1960s during the chaotic and disruptive years of campus unrest.

Among Connelly's books are "The Personal Library of James Joyce: A Descriptive Bibliography," published by the University of Buffalo in 1955 and republished in 1957 and 1974; "James Joyce's Scribbledehobble: The Ur-Workbook for 'Finnegans Wake'" (Northwestern University Press, 1961); "Joyce's Portrait: Criticisms and Critiques" (Appleton, 1962) and "The Scarlet Letter and Other Tales" (Penguin, 1970).

He wrote "Swinburne's Theory of Poetry," and edited "Nathaniel Hawthorne: Young Goodman Brown."

His survivors include two sons, Michael J. and Daniel P., both of Atlanta, and three daughters, Margaret Katsinis of Buffalo, Katharine Dell-Accio and Nancy Connolly of Los Robles, Calif. A funeral service will be held at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, March 23, in Christ the King Church, Main Street, Snyder.