The Santa Clara

Issue date: 10/25/07 Section: News

Media Credit: CAROLE WENTZ Dr. Osberg and former University Honors Program student, valedictorian Chris Wall.

English professor Dr. Richard Osberg, who served as director of the honors program and the office of fellowships, died of unspecified neurological problems Wednesday. He was 60.

Osberg had a passion for medievalism and encouraging students to follow their dreams, and was hailed by students, faculty and staff as the quintessential Santa Clara professor.

"He was so bright, so knowledgeable, so kind," said English professor Simone Billings, a longtime friend and colleague. "He had great standards. He also had a marvelous sense of humor and sensibility."

Osberg's health issues were discovered only within the last month, days after Osberg received his 25-year teaching plaque at the faculty awards dinner on Sept. 11. Osberg left the university to be hospitalized during the first week of fall quarter.

Osberg came to Santa Clara in 1982, after teaching at California State Polytechnic University, Barat College and Hamilton College. He graduated with honors from Dartmouth College in 1969 with a bachelor's degree in English. In 1974, Osberg earned his Ph.D. in English and American literature from Claremont Graduate School.

Junior Michael Enright, founding member of the Honors Advisory Council, said Osberg was "the hardest working faculty member in terms of helping students achieve their goals."

"Not only was he an advocate for you, but he was very much almost a friend," said Enright.

Exemplar scholar

Osberg was an accomplished academic: He published dozens of reviews, encyclopedia entries and scholarly articles. In 1999, he received the President's Award for Distinguished Teaching, Scholarship and Service, and he was awarded at least 10 research grants since 1978. Osberg was a guest lecturer at Stanford University and spent the summers teaching abroad in England.

Fellow English professor Theodore Rynes, S.J., said he was "probably the most distinguished member of the English department."

Osberg would say there are two approaches to research, the cricket or the mole, said John Hawley, chair of the English department. The cricket jumps from topic to topic quickly, while the mole burrows himself in.

"He'd identify himself as the mole," Hawley said. "He would try to investigate things at ever-increasing levels of complexity and depth."

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