IL SR1536

Gene Ruoff, University of Illinois at Chicago faculty member and administrator, passed away on January 4, 2020 at age 80.

Earned bachelor's degree from Centre College (1961) and Master's and Ph.D. in English from University of Wisconsin-Madison (1963, 1970); married A. LaVonne Brown in 1967 and adopted her two children.

Served as faculty member, director of the UIC Institute for the Humanities, associate vice chancellor (1994), and associate provost and special assistant to the chancellor for Information and Management Systems (1996-2009), overseeing UIC's computer systems and unified system creation across Illinois campuses.

Prolific scholar of English romantic literature who published "Wordsworth and Coleridge: The Making of the Major Lyrics, 1801-04" (1989) and coverage of Jane Austen's works, and edited multiple critical essay collections.

Restored a historic 1893 Victorian home in Oak Park over 31 years with his wife, receiving a State of Illinois Restoration Grant and a prize for interior decoration from the Historical Society of Oak Park.