The family of a former University of Arkansas professor and a former state poet laureate has donated $1.5 million to endow a chair in Italian at the university.
The Professor Antonio Marinoni and Rosa Zagnoni Marinoni Endowed Chair in Italian will benefit the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures, according to a press release from the university.
Antonio Marinoni was born in Italy in 1879 and immigrated to the United States in 1900 before earning a degree from Yale University. He became a professor at the University of Arkansas in 1905 and became the inaugural chair of the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures a year later. He was fluent in at least four Romance languages and served nearly 40 years as the head of the department before retiring in 1944 and dying a year later.
Rosa Zagnoni, who was born in Italy in 1888, came to the United States when she was 10 years old and married Antonio Marinoni in 1908. In 1926, she founded the University-City Poetry Club and served as Arkansas’ first female poet laureate. She died in 1970 and was inducted into the Arkansas Women’s Hall of Fame earlier this year.
The press release stated the endowment will ensure dedicated resources for the Italian program’s continued growth and development, as well as preserve Italian program for future generations of students.
“We want to ensure that Italian language and culture remain an important part of the curriculum at the U of A and that students will continue to have access to a resource that was very important to our grandfather,” Mary Sue Marinoni Shaw, the couple’s oldest granddaughter, said in the release.
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