Hamilton Mourns Professor of Romance Languages and Literature Emeritus Rouben Cholakian

Dear Faculty, Students, and Staff,

I write to share the sad news that Burgess Professor of Romance Languages and Literature Emeritus Rouben Cholakian died peacefully Wednesday evening. His daughter, Kathryn, said he retained his “inimitable sense of humor” right up until his passing.                                                                                                     

Rouben and his personal and professional partner in life, Patricia Cholakian, came to Hamilton in 1963 and both taught in the French Department, Rouben for more than 30 years until his retirement in 1996. Fellow Francophiles, they met as undergraduates at Bates College and married in 1955. Rouben subsequently earned his master’s degree and Ph.D. from Columbia University while teaching at the Pingry School. He and Patricia moved to the University of Virginia before coming to Hamilton where, in addition to his teaching Renaissance literature and related subjects, he sang tenor in the Oratorio Society and participated in theatrical productions. He also directed Hamilton’s Junior Year in France program seven times, which inspired his novel Murder on the Junior Year in France, which takes place during the 1968 student revolt in Paris. It centers on a travel director and his wife who are called upon to solve the murder of one of their students.

Rouben published The Bayeux Tapestry and the Ethos of War and The Troubadour Lyric: A Psychocritical Reading. He authored, edited, and translated a number of other publications, several with his wife, including Marguerite de Navarre: Mother of the Renaissance, following her death in 2003 from cancer. Patricia was an internationally recognized scholar of Renaissance and 17th-century French women writers and gender. She and Rouben were, as colleague Cheryl Morgan noted in her memorial minute for Patricia, “partner[s] in life and in scholarship.” Following their time in Clinton, the Cholakians retired to New York City in 1998.

On behalf of the College, I extend Hamilton’s condolences to the Cholakian family and to Rouben and Patricia’s many friends and acquaintances. A service is anticipated in the spring.

Ngoni