Herbert E. Francis Jr. ’50 AM

Herbert E. Francis Jr. ’50 AM, of Huntsville, Ala.; Feb. 2, at 100 years of age. After serving in the U.S. Army Air Corps, he graduated from the University of Wisconsin and Brown and taught at Penn State, the University of Tennessee, and Northern Illinois State. From 1958 to 1966, he taught English literature at Emory University. He then helped to establish the humanities program at the University of Alabama. He retired after 20 years to focus on his writing but during his tenure he was the recipient of three Fulbright fellowships; one to Oxford University and two to teach at the Universidad National de Cuyo in Mendoza, Argentina. While teaching in Mendoza, he made a point of buying a newspaper each day from one particular street kid named Carlos Roberto Francis and a powerful bond developed, leading to the adoption of Carlos as his son. He purchased an apartment in Madrid, Spain, and spent many summers there writing. He volunteered translating works of Argentinean authors living in exile in Spain and won several awards for his own writings. He was a member of the Huntsville Literary Association and is survived by his son, Carlos, Carlos’s children and grandchildren in Argentina, a brother, and nieces and nephews.