University Times

A memorial service will be held for Pamela Bacarisse, professor and former chairperson of the Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures, on April 3 at 2 p.m. in Heinz Memorial Chapel.

Bacarisse died March 18 of stomach and pancreatic cancer at her Oakland home. She was 61.

Her husband and fellow professor of Hispanic languages and literatures, Keith McDuffie, said: "She was a typically British educator in the breadth of her training and background, offering courses in Peninsular Spanish and Portuguese as well as in Latin American and Brazilian literature.

"Prior to her death she had started research on a study of the psychology of authority in the 19th century European novel. In addition to her native English, she was fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Catalan and Welsh, and read Italian and German. She was a Fellow of the British Institute of Linguists in French and Spanish." McDuffie and other colleagues described Bacarisse as a kind yet demanding teacher and a prolific literary critic who gave generously of her time and advice to students. Born Pamela Phillips in Cardiff, Wales, she studied commercial art at the Cardiff College of Art. She worked as an artist for a local newspaper and was a semi-professional singer with a number of groups, including the BBC Welsh Symphony, before earning her B.A. with honors from the University of Wales at Cardiff.

In 1969, she joined the faculty at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland as a Spanish and Portuguese lecturer. She earned tenure in 1973 and completed her dissertation there in 1976. For 20 years, she commuted by train the 180-mile round trip from her home in St. Andrews, Scotland, where she lived with her first husband, Salvador Bacarisse, and their two children.

In the wake of a divorce and the state-funded University of Aberdeen's financial troubles, Bacarisse came to Pitt as a full professor in 1989. In 1991, Hispanic languages and literatures faculty unanimously elected her department chairperson, a position she held until resigning in 1993. In 1992, she was elected executive secretary-treasurer of the International Institute of Iberoamerican Literature, a post she held until her death.

Bacarisse also organized two international symposia on Hispanic literature and presented papers at several European and North and South American conferences. During the last decade, she wrote three books and edited three others, as well as writing numerous articles. Her two books and several articles on Argentine writer Manuel Puig, author of "Kiss of the Spider Woman," established her as an authority on his writing.

Many faculty, staff and administration members outside of her department knew of Bacarisse's illness because of her marriage to McDuffie, who is president of the University Senate. He has largely absented himself from Senate business in recent months to care for Bacarisse.

At last week's Senate Council meeting, Interim Chancellor Mark Nordenberg said, "What I saw in the two of them [Bacarisse and McDuffie] was an example of love and of caring and of courage that was really quite extraordinary. My heart has ached for them over the course of the last several months." In addition to McDuffie, Bacarisse is survived by her mother, Nellie Phillips of Cardiff; her two children, Claire Bacarisse and Benjamin Bacarisse, of London; and two stepchildren, Andrew McDuffie of South Side and Anne McDuffie of Seattle.

Memorial donations can be made to Forbes Hospice, 6655 Frankstown Road, Pittsburgh 15206.