In Memoriam: Gerald Edward Wade 1896-1986

IN MEMORIAM Gerald Edward Wade 1896-1986 Gerald E. Wade was born in South Portsmouth, Kentucky, on November 20, 1896. He received his elementary and secondary education in the public schools of Ashland, Kentucky, from 1902-1914, and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude at Ohio Wesleyan University in 1918. He completed his Master of Arts degree at the University of Wisconsin in 1925, and he received his doctoral degree in Romance Languages from Ohio State University in 1936. Professor Wade began his checkered teaching career in the high schools of Ohio from 1919 to 1923. After teaching as an instructor at Ohio Wesleyan and Ohio State Universities, he accepted an appointment at the University of Tennessee, where he spent the major part of his career, 1932-1965. After his retirement, he taught for another four years at Vanderbilt University. Professor Wade was actve in various professional organizations and held office in the following: The Tennessee Philological Association , president; South Atlantic Modern Language Association, member of the Executive Committee, vice president and president; American Association of Teachers of Spanish & Portuguese, member of the Executive Committee; Modern Language Association, member of the Bibliography Committee and chairman not only of the Modern Spanish group but also of the Spanish American section. Professor Wade's main scholarly interest lay in the Spanish drama of the Golden Age, and especially the dramatist, Tirso de Molina. He edited Tirso's La Santa Juana, Primera Parte for his doctoral dissertation . He published an edition of El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra for Scribner's. His most recent studies have been concerned with the philosophical basis for the interpretation of the Comedia. His last essay deals with «Tirso de Molina: Priest and Playwright,» and appears in the present issue. 159 160BCom, Vol. 38, No. 1 (Summer 1986) In recognition of his scholarly achievements, his friends published a volume of essays entitled Studies in Honor of Gerald E. Wade (Madrid: Studia Humanitatis, 1979). A listing of his publications is included in that volume. In September, 1985, Gerald wrote me that his ailment had been diagnosed as cancer of the liver. I shall never forget his comment that«all meaning has now gone out of my life.» When I visited him in October , 1985, he was receiving chemotherapy treatments and was suffering no pain. Gerald died peacefully in his sleep on June 6, 1986. He once wrote me his favorite lines from Shakespeare, Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury Signifying nothing. Macbeth, Act V, Scene ? Everett W. Hesse San Diego State University ...