The Boston College community mourns the recent deaths of two faculty members with a combined nine decades of service to the University: retired Professor of English John J. Fitzgerald and Donald J. Plocke, S.J., former associate professor of biology.
Fr. Plocke, who joined the BC faculty in 1966, died on March 5. He was 86.
A molecular biologist, Fr. Plocke – who served as department chair for nine years – focused his research on the biological roles of metal ions such as zinc and iron as well as the mechanisms for protection against the toxic effects of metals such as cadmium and copper. He won research grants from the American Cancer Society and produced a string of publications. Later, he spent a sabbatical divided between Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and a research center in Zurich working on a project in a new area of molecular biology.
Fr. Plocke became involved with BC’s Capstone Program – an array of courses for seniors that encourage them to connect what they have learned in their undergraduate years with their plans for the future – and developed a course about the relationship between religion and science, with the aid of a grant from the Templeton Foundation. He spent a sabbatical at Oxford working on this topic and taught the course through the last years of his working life, until he was diagnosed with cancer in 2011 and assigned to the Campion Center in Weston.
Fr. Plocke also taught courses at Harvard Medical School.
A native of Connecticut, Fr. Plocke graduated from Yale University and entered the Society of Jesus New England Province’s Shadowbrook novitiate. After three years of philosophy studies at Weston School of Theology, he obtained a doctoral degree in biophysics at MIT and returned to Weston for theological studies. He was ordained in 1964, and then spent his tertianship in Germany, where he worked in a biophysics lab at the Max Planck Institute.
A funeral Mass was celebrated for Fr. Plocke on March 9 in the Campion Center’s Chapel of the Holy Spirit, and he was buried in the Campion Center Cemetery. Donations may be made in his name to the center, 319 Concord Rd. Weston, Mass. 02493, to support its care of elderly and infirm Jesuits.
Dr. Fitzgerald, who taught for 53 years at BC, died on March 26 at the age of 96. He was known for weaving family stories into his lectures and for working diligently with his students to help them improve their writing skills, wielding a red pen to correct grammatical errors or poorly constructed sentences.
Languages both ancient and modern were a scholarly passion for Dr. Fitzgerald, who traced words back to their roots in Middle and Old English, Latin and Greek, and his translations of Greek and Latin into English went beyond the direct and literal. He spent months studying Spanish in Mexico and for a time was the English Department’s official liaison to Spanish-speaking students.
He graduated from Malden Catholic High School and received his Ph.D. from Fordham University.
Dr. Fitzgerald was an inveterate traveler, and over the years made visits – usually with his wife and children – to Paris, Munich, Stuttgart, Vienna, Venice, Florence and Rome, among other places, as well as a five-week trip behind the Iron Curtain. He made a point of recording his travel experiences in a hardcover journal.
He is survived by his wife Margaret; his sons Christopher, Terence, Paul and John; and five grandchildren. A funeral Mass was celebrated for Dr. Fitzgerald at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Millis, Mass., and burial took place at St. Joseph’s Cemetery in West Roxbury. Contributions in his name may be made to the Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston, Office of Mission Advancement, 637 Cambridge St., Brighton, Mass. 02135.
–Office of News & Public Affairs
