Obituaries
Jellison Funeral Home
Peterborough, New Hampshire
Nathan Cervo
Peterborough, New Hampshire - Nathan Benito Anthony Cervo, 81, died on November 22, 2011, at his home.Mr. Cervo was born on June 19, 1930, in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of Nicolena (Pepe) and Natalino Cervo. He attended parochial schools in New Haven and graduated from The James Hillhouse High School. In his youth he played on his high school bowling and chess teams; he scored his team's only point in a chess match against Yale. He went on to earn his B.A. and M.A. at the University of Connecticut.He earned his Ph.D. in English Language and Literature at the University of Toronto where he worked closely on his thesis with Marshall McLuhan. He taught at Boston College for a year, and won a Fulbright Research Grant to Italy where he spent a year studying Dante and the baroque literary mode at the Universita di Firenze. Desiring to broaden his academic experience, Dr. Cervo proceeded to St. Joseph College for Women in West Hartford, Connecticut. He ventured next to Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York, for four years, after which he and his wife and daughter traveled to Italy and back on German freighters. In Italy they stayed for a year at the Villa La Colombai, meeting scores of relatives, including Uncle Roberto, founder of M.E.S.P.I. and early publisher of Nobel laureates Eugenio Montale and Salvatore Quasimodo.He and his family came to New Hampshire in 1970. He labored in the vineyard of Franklin Pierce College in Rindge for 28 years until his retirement in 1998. During that time he served as assistant editor of "The Pre-Raphaelite Review," in cooperation with the poet Barbara Gibbs and the distinguished scholar and editor-in-chief Francis Golffing. He also was a contributing editor at "Hellas," a neoclassical literary magazine.Dr. Cervo's many explications, scholarly and critical articles have been widely published and read, drawing interest from diverse countries. He published many short stories and poems, and was a chronic letter-to-the-editor writer, frequently appearing in the Peterborough Transcript, Monadnock Ledger-Transcript, and the Keene Sentinel. The Monadnock Shopper news published about 50 of his quatrains over the years, and he had five collections published by Rat & Mole (Amherst, Massachusetts).He is survived by his daughter, Aimee Gibbons of Greenfield, and two grandchildren, Nathan Gibbons and Caeli Gibbons.A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Monday, November 28th at 11AM in St. Peter's Church of Divine Mercy Parish, Vine Street, Peterborough, with Father Gerald Belanger, pastor, as celebrant. Burial will follow in St. Peter's Cemetery.Memorial gifts in his name may be sent to Peterborough Ambulance Fund, Summer St., Peterborough, or to Hospice at HCS, PO Box 496, Peterborough, NH 03458 Jellison funeral Home, Peterborough, is assisting with the arrangements. for an online guestbook, please go to www.jellisonfuneralhome.com.
