Obituary of Joseph Pequigney

January 19, 2022

Farre Joseph Pequigney passed away peacefully at his home in Manhattan on January 19th, 2022. Joe was born in 1924 in Galveston, TX. He graduated from Notre Dame University in 1944, and earned an M.A. at the University of Minnesota in 1947. After a period in the novitiate and on the teaching faculty of St. John's University, he went to Harvard University where he earned his Ph.D. in 1959.
In 1960, Joe joined the original English Department faculty of Stony Brook University, where he taught until he retired in 1995. His early academic writing focused on Milton and Dante, but it was his teaching of Shakespearean drama and poetry combined with the experience of being a gay man that led him to his major work, Such Is My Love, a radical close reading of the sonnets. Although greeted with controversy at first, this book became a seminal work in Shakespeare and gay studies alike. Joe went on to write numerous articles on same-sex love as it appeared in Dante's Divine Comedy and English Renaissance drama, for publications like The Dante Encyclopedia; The Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage; ELR: English Literary Renaissance, and Representations. In 2017 he received the GALA ND/SMC Award for Distinguished Academic Achievement, honoring the fact that themes "of same sex love are today recognized and taught with greater honesty as a result" of his work. For Joe, teaching was as important as scholarship; the clarity and passion of his thought inspired generations of students, some of whom credit him with profoundly shaping their subsequent paths.
Joe remained interested in Catholic thinking throughout his life. In an unpublished article, he discussed some important discrepancies between papal discourse and the foundational writing of Thomas Aquinas which contends that "ensoulment," what makes us human, does not occur at the moment of conception.
Joe loved friends and family, European travel, theatre, food, wine, and animated conversations about them all. Joy was effusive around his table, powered by his affection, his love of sharing, his wit, and very often by his heartfelt left-wing politics. The love he radiated enriched the lives of his husband, his siblings, his 11 nieces and nephews, and their children, all of whom happily acknowledge their "Uncle Bubba's" extensive influence on their lives.
Joe is survived by his husband and companion of 53 years, Steven Mays, his sister Margaret Cashion of Jackson, MS, the aforementioned nieces and nephews, their children, and their children's children. He was predeceased by his parents Margaret Dugey Pequigney and Frank Pequigney, and by his sister Dorothy Shepherd Davison, all of Galveston, TX.