In Memoriam: Dolores Warwick Frese, 1936-2024

Dolores Warwick Frese, long-time professor of English at the University of Notre Dame, passed away on May 30. She was 88 years old.

In 1973, Dr. Frese was hired as one of the first women professors at the University of Norte Dame in Indiana. She served as a professor of English for over four decades, researching and teaching courses on medieval English and Chaucer. Throughout her lifetime, she published numerous scholarly articles, short stories, poetry volumes, academic books, and novels including An Ars Legendi for Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales: A Re-constructive Reading (University Press of Florida, 1991) and Learn to Say Goodbye (An Ariel Book) (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1971).

A native of Baltimore, Dr. Frese completed her undergraduate education at the College of Notre Dame in Maryland. She held a Ph.D. in English from the University of Iowa and a master’s degree in theology from the University of Notre Dame.