COLBY, Robert A(lan) 1920-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE— See index for CA sketch: Born April 15, 1920, in Chicago, IL; died October 3, 2004. Educator and author. Colby was a retired professor of library science at Queens College of the City University of New York. Completing his B.A. and M.A. at the University of Chicago in 1941 and 1942 respectively, he served in the Army Medical Corps during World War II. He then returned to Chicago to complete his Ph.D. in 1949. During his first few years after earning his doctorate, he taught English at Lake Forest College and then Hunter College of the City University of New York. He earned a master's degree in library science from Columbia University in 1953, after which he joined the faculty at Queens College. With the exception of two years spent at Southern Connecticut State College in the mid-1960s, Colby would spend the rest of his academic career at Queens. He became a full professor of library science there in 1969, retiring in 1986. He was the author or coauthor of several books on literature, such as Fiction with a Purpose: Major and Minor Nineteenth-Century Novels (1967) and Thackeray's Canvass of Humanity: An Author and His Public (1979). After retiring, he continued to contribute to scholarly books, such as Victorian Periodicals and Victorian Society (1994) and Storia della civilta letteraria inglese (1996). In addition, he was an associate editor for the Victorian Periodicals Review in 1999 and for the Dickens Studies Annual in 2002, as well as an editorial board member for the Dickens Studies Association.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Library Hotline, October 25, 2004, p. 2.

New York Times, October 6, 2004, p. A27.