Francis R. Nicosia
Francis R. Nicosia, Middlebury, VT, died November 21, 2023, due to complications from Parkinson’s disease. Throughout his illness, Frank, a member of the Saint Michael’s history faculty from 1979 to 2007, was always in the company of family members.
Frank was born and raised in Philadelphia. After graduating from Penn State University, where he also spent a semester abroad in Spain, he became a Peace Corps volunteer in a small desert village in Libya, and then taught English and History in a German high school in a small town in southern Germany. He received a master’s degree in Modern European History from Georgetown University and a doctorate in German and Middle Eastern history from McGill University.
Following his nearly three decades as a Saint Michael’s history professor, Frank then taught at the University of Vermont, where he was the Raoul Hilberg Distinguished Professor of Holocaust Studies until he retired in 2018.
He was a prolific scholar who focused especially on the Holocaust, and the need for deep historical understanding to make sense of the present. Amongst his many works was “Nazi Germany and the Arab World,” “Zionism and Anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany,” and “The Third Reich and the Palestine Question.” He co-authored the textbook “The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust,” co-edited six books and edited three volumes of documents. He published numerous articles in English and German in scholarly journals and collections. He received many grants and fellowships for his research in Germany, Israel, England, and the United States.
Despite his scholarly contributions, Frank always maintained that the most wonderful thing about working as an academic was the continued relationships with young people who gave him hope. In 2000, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education named him “Vermont Professor of the Year,” and in 2014 he received the “Distinguished Achievement Award” from the Holocaust Educational Foundation at Northwestern University.
In addition to his teaching at UVM and Saint Michael’s, he also served as a visiting professor at the Center for Research on Anti-Semitism of the Technical University in Berlin, and at the Humboldt University in Berlin. He served several stints as the Interim Director of the Carolyn and Leonard Miller Center for Holocaust Studies at UVM.
Frank always enjoyed hiking, snow shoeing, and cross-country skiing in the fall and winter, and perennial flower and vegetable gardening in the spring and summer. He produced bumper crops of garlic in his backyard garden! Along with his wife and sister-in-law he was an avid opera fan, enjoying live performances from Middlebury to New York, as well as Saturday radio broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera. He was also a lifelong Philadelphia Phillies fan and took enormous joy in watching their 2023 post season run. Frank and Ellen worked together advocating against militarism and for health care for all, as well as going door to door canvassing during progressive political campaigns. As he struggled to overcome health obstacles in his last months, Frank always looked forward to connecting to the world through Democracy Now! and to pure beauty through the Saturday opera broadcasts.
Frank’s kindness, good nature, and brilliance will be forever missed. He was an extraordinary scholar, teacher, father, husband and citizen. He was loved by many, especially his sons, to whom he was deeply devoted.
Frank is survived by his wife of 23 years, Ellen Oxfeld, two sons, two brothers, a sister and extended family. A celebration of his life is planned for Spring 2024.
