|
Professor
Sever Trifu, former Head of the Department of British and
American Studies of Lucian Blaga University, Sibiu (1995-2004),
founding editor of the ABC Journal, the journal of the Academic
Anglophone Society of Romania, died in June 2006, one day short
of his seventy-sixth birthday. Having suffered a massive stroke
in 2004, the Professor’s death did not come as a surprise, and
yet we here, at the ABC, are still having a very difficult time
adjusting to the cruel fact: Professor Trifu is no longer with
us.
When the Professor turned seventy, we threw a birthday party in
his honour with the theme ‘The Department Salutes Its Youngest
Member’. For paradoxically, this venerable scholar, was also a
man of extraordinary vitality and zest for life, eternally young
at heart. He had had a long and distinguished career, which
brought him recognition and admiration as one of the most
respected specialists in English and American studies in
Romania. Having graduated from the University of Bucharest in
the early nineteen-fifties, Sever Trifu taught English at a
Military Academy before moving to the University of Cluj and
taking up a position with its English Department. For many years
one of the leading professors of the English Department of Cluj
and Head of Department for most of the nineteen-eighties, in
1992 Professor Trifu accepted an invitation from Lucian Blaga
University, Sibiu to take up a position at the Department of
British and American Studies of the University. In 1995 he was
elected Head of Department and served with distinction until
2004.
The
authority, academic prestige and tremendous experience that
Professor Trifu brought to the job of heading the Department
benefited a young and still growing Department immensely. There
is not a single member of the Department who did not learn
essential things from him, indeed who did not benefit from his
encouragement, kindness and professional support. A man of
strong convictions and indomitable will, Professor Trifu had
also become a father figure for the Department and was
surrounded by the genuine affection and admiration of all.
ABC
and the Academic Anglophone Society of Romania, which he
established in 1994, are but two of the many testimonies to
Professor Trifu’s continuing concern with the mission of English
studies in Romanian Higher Education. A man of profound vision,
Late Professor Trifu founded the Society with a mind to create a
vibrant forum of debate for Romanian scholars of English and
promote daring, locally informed work in the field. ABC had thus
been his brainchild from the beginning and he nurtured it with
fatherly care and unfailing commitment. His departure leaves a
void that will be very difficult to fill; his exemplary stature
as a teacher and scholar will stay with us for many years to
come.
Eugen
Gergely
Lucian
Blaga University, Sibiu
BACK |
