In Memoriam: Distinguished Professor Emeritus Ronald S. Berman, Literature

We share the sad news of the passing of Distinguished Professor Emeritus Ronald S. Berman, a longstanding member of the UC San Diego Department of Literature and leader in advancing the humanities in the United States and abroad. Berman died May 17, 2022, at the age of 91.

Berman was a renowned scholar of Renaissance and 20th century American Literature, most particularly of F. Scott Fitzgerald. He had a long career at UC San Diego, joining the university in 1965 from Kenyon College, where he served as associate professor and associate editor of the Kenyon Review. Prior to Kenyon College, he was an instructor and assistant professor at Columbia University.

In December 1971, Berman was confirmed by the United States Senate as the second chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), a position he assumed in January the following year. Berman served in the position for five years, until January of 1977.

Under Berman’s leadership, the NEH expanded its focus to include collaborative humanities exchange between U.S. scholars and the rest of the world, and vice-versa. In 1973, the Summer Seminars for College Teachers program made its first 21 awards, and the NEH began its support for ACLS Research Fellowships.

Berman’s time with the NEH occurred during the U.S. Bicentennial celebration, and the national organization established the American Issues Forum — a series of debates examining the rights of individuals, obligations of society, the work ethic, and the effects of urbanization — and, in 1976, “The States and the Nation” was published, representing a 52-volume series of state histories.

As a scholar, Berman continued an active research and publication program throughout his life, publishing most recently “Fitzgerald’s Mentors: Edmund Wilson, H.L. Mencken and Gerald Murphy” (2012) and “F. Scott Fitzgerald and the American Scene” (2017), which looks at the intellectual, political, and philosophical contexts in which Fitzgerald wrote, and was a 2018 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title.

Earlier published work includes “A Reader’s Guide to Shakespeare’s Plays” (1965), “Public Policy and the Aesthetic Interest” (1992) and “America in the Sixties: An Intellectual History” (1970). Incredibly prolific in his contribution to literature and the humanities, his later research focused almost exclusively on F. Scott Fitzgerald and contemporaries. Berman’s “The Great Gatsby and Fitzgerald’s World of Ideas” (1996) won the Elizabeth Agee Prize in American Literature.

At UC San Diego, Berman was director of the Disadvantaged Students Program from 1965 to 1968, head of the Muir Group in the Department of Literature, chair of the University Committee on Extension, and served on the executive council of the Committee to Save the University. He was promoted to Distinguished Professor in 2006, and Emeritus in 2009.

Berman was a professional member of University Centers for Rational Alternatives, International Committee on University Education, Committee for Academic Responsibility and the American Jewish Association, among others.

Born in New York City in 1930, Berman was raised by his mother, aunts and grandmother. Friends and colleagues will remember that Berman was a first-generation American and the first in his family to attend college. He was a champion middle distance runner, setting a record in the Boys 600-yard while in high school, and later a record in the half mile at Harvard University, where he received his bachelor’s degree in sociology. He received his Ph.D. in English literature at Yale University in 1959.

Berman was as a Lieutenant in the Naval Reserves, serving from 1952 – 1956. Throughout his distinguished career, he received six honorary degrees, a Gold Medal from Phi Beta Kappa in 1974 and the Medal of the City of New York in 1975.

Ronald Berman was preceded in death by his wife of 60 years, Barbara Barr Berman. He is survived by his cousin Dorothy Crystal Ross, his children Andrew Berman (Linda), Julia Berman Grossman (Martin) and Katherine Berman, as well as several grandchildren and nieces. The family welcomes shared memories from Berman’s colleagues, friends and former students.

Elizabeth H. Simmons
Executive Vice Chancellor

Cristina Della Coletta
Dean, School of Arts and Humanities

Kazim Ali
Chair, Department of Literature