Donald B. Gibson ’62 PhD

Donald B. Gibson ’62 PhD, of Princeton, N.J.; Nov. 18. He was an assistant professor at Wayne State University before joining the faculty at UConn as an associate professor of African American literature. He retired from teaching at Rutgers in 2001. During the late 1960s and early 1970s he published several articles, including Twentieth-Century Interpretations of Modern Black Poets in 1972. In 1970, he was awarded a study grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and a research grant by the American Council of Learned Societies. He also accepted an appointment to the editorial board of the Langston Hughes Society, and in 1974 he was on the editorial board of the Black American Literature Forum. He edited two books: Five Black Writers: Essays on Wright, Ellison, Baldwin, Hughes and LeRoi Jones and Black and White: Stories of American Life, which was a collection of short stories for which he wrote the introduction. Other writings included Is there a Black Literary Tradition? (1971), Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin (1971), and The Good Black Poet and the Good Gray Poet (1971). He enjoyed singing, cooking, wood carving, and playing tennis, which he did into his 80s. In retirement, he traveled to Senegal and South Africa and lectured at local universities. His final years were spent in both Princeton, New Jersey, and Isle La Motte, Vermont, with his partner, Linda Fitch, who survives him. He is also survived by two sons, three grandchildren, and his former wife, JoAnne Gibson.