Cal State Long Beach professor emeritus of English and active volunteer Arthur Axelrad died Jan. 15. He was 78.
Axelrad served CSULB for 32 years as an educator, adviser and friend to many, according to Chair of the English department Eileen Klink. Klink said that Axelrad loved literature, strived to help students on their path to success and volunteered in many organizations.
Axelrad started working for CSULB in 1964. He served as chair of the Department of English from 1989 to 1991 and retired as a full-time professor in 1996. After retiring, became a professor emeritus who volunteered in academic advising, taught Shakespeare in the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and also served as a docent at the University Art Museum, according to Klink.
“Arthur was an academic adviser from 1996 to 2012,” Melody Martin, a CSULB academic adviser at the University Center for Undergraduate Advising, said. “He really loved helping students and was enthusiastic about it.”
Brian Trimble, curator of education at the UAM, said Axelrad was a docent and donor for 20 years. Axelrad’s last donation was a large monitor to the UAM that overlooks the Horn Center, Trimble said.
“I think everyone loved him for his sense of humor, and he was incredibly intelligent,” Trimble said. “When he gave docent tours, he said he would only do one tour because he wouldn’t repeat a performance.”
Gary Griswold, assistant chair of the English department, said Axelrad helped to advise him when he was deciding to teach at the college level.
“I learned a lot of writing skills from Arthur [Axelrad],” Griswold said. “He always told me to be prepared, don’t try to wing it.”
Griswold also said that Axelrad was a wonderful professor and an active campus citizen. CSULB Professor Emeritus Paulino Limb was previously the chair of the English department when Axelrad was the assistant chair of the English department.
“As a friend, he was warm, generous and fun to talk to,” Limb said. “He loved music and played the piano.”
Klink, who has known Axelrad since the 1970s, said she first met him when he was a graduate coordinator. Klink said Axelrad would offer his time for the university as well as the community whenever possible.
“He was part of a group of faculty involved in the Honors Program, and they would have a Roman evening where people wore togas and would read excerpts from plays,” Klink said. “He was truly a Renaissance person.”
Axelrad also had a passion for Shakespeare and on campus performances, Klink said.
“At different times during the year he would help put plays together on campus to excite students and bring them into the world of literature,” she said.
Axelrad published one book on Jane Austen and finished a second manuscript for a publication, Klink said. Axelrad also published work and exhibits on Sherlock Holmes.
Axelrad’s work on John Milton’s divorce tracts is also still regularly cited by other Milton scholars throughout the country, Klink said.
Outside of the CSULB community, Axelrad volunteered at the Seal Beach Animal Shelter and CATPAWS, an organization dedicated to saving cats and finding them homes, according Klink.
He is survived by his niece, Lynne Mann; and nephew, Scott Goldfine.
Axelrad’s funeral was held Sunday at the Forest Lawn Cemetery on San Antonio Drive.