Frederick W. Clothey, an early and influential faculty member in the Department of Religious Studies in the Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences from the mid-1970s until 2006, died May 18, 2025.
“His commitment to advancing the academic study of religious experiences through advanced methodological approaches,” says his long-time departmental colleague Associate Professor Emeritus Alex Orbach, “guided not only his own research and scholarship — notably, his founding and directing, for more than a decade, of the Journal of Ritual Studies — it decidedly shaped the identity and orientation of the Department of Religious Studies.”
Clothey was only the third faculty member in the newly formed department. His research focus was on India, but he was “more than a regionalist,” Orbach recalls. “His research and teaching identified him as a historian of religion devoted to identifying and documenting how religious ideas, practices and perspectives shaped the fabric of individual lives and societal institutions.”
He approached the study of religious rituals and other phenomena “as they emerged from human encounters with the mysterious and the supernatural and manifested themselves across geographical rather than denominational boundaries.” And, unlike scholars before him, Clothey avoided labels, Orbach notes, “such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism … because he believed that doing so imposed artificial boundaries on the behaviors” he was examining.
“His approach, as seen in his courses, ‘Perspectives on Religion, Myth, Symbol and Ritual’ and ‘Death and Dying,’ proved to be stimulating to the large number of undergraduates students who enrolled in his courses and identified him as a mentor who could guide them to a clearer and more sophisticated understanding of the phenomenon of religion in human decision making at the personal as well as the political level.”
Orbach says of Clothey’s character: “His gentleness and his welcoming persona together with the range and the depth of his knowledge made him an attractive mentor to graduate students interested in the critical study of religion as a force in the human condition. As a consequence, he served on more graduate theses and dissertation committees than did any other member of the department in the quarter century from his arrival at the University through the end of the 20th century.
“As chair of the department, Clothey continually stressed the importance of interdisciplinary studies and encouraged all colleagues to participate actively in the work of allied departments (history, anthropology, philosophy) and, if appropriate, the relevant area studies programs in the University Center for International Studies.”
Another of Clothey’s close colleagues — a fellow South Asianist — is Joseph S. Alter, now director of the Asian Studies Center and professor of anthropology. Alter met Clothey in the 1990s as a faculty member, joined him on the Indo-Pacific Council of the Asian Studies Center and succeeded him as Pitt’s representative to the American Institute for Indian Studies.
He credits Clothey with accomplishing “some of the groundbreaking work in popular religion in South India,” at the same time that Alter was working in North India. Clothey’s work on popular religion influenced his work here in Pittsburgh too, Alter adds: his outreach to the local Indian community allowed him to study the ways in which the Monroeville temple “was physically and spiritually connected” to a counterpart in India, and how “the diaspora of Indians retains its religious roots in India. He was also a really good example of a scholar whose work on popular religion made him aware of issues of social inequality.”
As a colleague, Alter remembers, Clothey “was very, very generous and encouraging,” helping Alter get his footing as a junior faculty member. “He was very instrumental in promoting Indian studies within Asian Studies here at the University” through the Indo-Pacific Council, Alter adds.
He recalls Clothey in one faculty meeting at the Asian Studies Center: “I was struck by his complete understanding of the complicated dynamics of how one part of Asia took precedent over other parts of Asia” — particularly China and East Asia, in those years. “I was struck by Fred's ability both to accept that but also constantly push back against the marginalization of India. He did it with such a good sense of humor that he was comfortable with the expectation that it was unlikely to bring about any positive result ... but that it was a battle worth fighting all the way through.”
Born Feb. 29, 1936, Clothey was a graduate of Kodaikanal International School in India (1954), earning his B.A. and B.Th. at Aurora University, a B.Div at Naperville Seminary, and an M.A. and PhD at the University of Chicago. His early career included a stint at Boston University, and he retired from Pitt as professor emeritus. He was honored with the Distinguished Asianist award from the Mid-Atlantic Region Association for Asian Studies, and four Fulbright scholarships. He authored many books and scholarly articles and produced seven documentaries.
He is survived by Ann, his wife of 63 years; children Phillip, Rebecca, Frederick M., Sharmali and Fathima; daughters-in-law Gaby and Wendy; grandchildren Ari, Elijah, Anika and Kyle, and many nieces and nephews.
A memorial gift is suggested: a tree planted in his memory through the Arbor Day Foundation.
— Marty Levine