Obituary: Frank John Coppa (1937–2021)

Abstract

ObituaryFrank John Coppa (1937–2021) Roy Domenico Click for larger view View full resolution Frank J. Coppa, who taught Italian and Catholic History at St. John’s University in Queens, New York, passed away on January 13, 2021. Born in 1937 in New York City, Coppa obtained his BA from Brooklyn College in 1960 and went on to The Catholic University of America where he earned the PhD in 1966. His dissertation there, under John K. Zeender and funded in part with a Fulbright grant, concerned the work of Italy’s pre-World War One Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti. Titled “Giolitti and Industrial Italy: An Analysis of the Interrelationship between Giolitti’s Economic Policy and His Political Program,” the Catholic University of America Press published it in 1971 as Planning, Protectionism, and Politics in Liberal Italy: Economics and Politics in the Giolittian Age. It was the first of his twelve books. Beyond a biography of Count Cavour and a study of the Italian Wars of Independence, Coppa devoted the balance of his book-length studies to aspects of the papacy, particularly the pontificates of Pius IX and Pius XII. Much of his later work focused on the Holy See and the [End Page 163] Jews and he became keenly interested in interfaith dialogue. Among those later studies, his The Papacy, the Jews and the Holocaust: From Nineteenth-Century Anti-Semitism to the Third Millennium, which the CUA press published in 2006, earned him particularly glowing reviews. He also edited or co-edited fourteen books beginning with the 1969’s (with Benjamin Bast) From Vienna to Vietnam: War and Peace in the Modern World. Frank Coppa joined the faculty of St. John’s University in 1965, reached the full professor rank in 1979, and he remained there until his retirement in 2010. Known as a charming and collegial figure among his peers and students, Coppa served as Department Chair. He also established and directed St. John’s doctoral program in World History. Professor Coppa was a tireless worker and produced three more books after his retirement, displaying an energy that St. John’s recognized when it honored him in 2012 with Emeritus status. Frank Coppa was also a long-standing and loyal member of the ACHA, which chose to award him with its first Lifetime Distinguished Scholarship Award at the 2011 meeting in Boston. Father Steven Avella, the ACHA president at the time, remarked that the award honored Coppa’s “contributions, which have fundamentally animated the research of others, beside being significant in their own right.” Coppa’s wife, Rosina, who often accompanied him to conferences, survives him as do their daughters, Francesca and Molina, and two grandchildren. Professor Dolores Augustine, a colleague and friend at St. Johns, noted that Frank Coppa was not only “one of the most preeminent scholars in the field of Catholic history, but, equally important, he . . . contributed to a general spirit of collegiality in the History Department.” [End Page 164] Roy Domenico The University of Scranton Copyright © 2021 The Catholic University of America Press