Octavian Roske Obituary, Former head of the American Studies Program has died – Death

Octavian Roske Death, Obituary – Associate Professor Octavian Roske, who served as the former leader of the American Studies Program, passed away earlier today at the age of 67. His passing has left all of us here at the American Studies Program in a state of profound grief. Professor Roske began his career as a professor in the English Department in 1993. Prior to that, he received his degree from the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, where he studied English and Romanian from 1977 to 1981.

He had an amazing understanding of American history, the American political system, and the American constitution, which contributed to his popularity as a teacher. He was strict, but he was also encouraging and patient with his students. The research interests of Professor Roske were broad and varied, and they extended well beyond the confines of the field of American studies. His work at the National Institute for the Study of Totalitarianism resulted in an astonishing number of books and collections of papers, both of which provided a significant contribution to the preservation of the memory of the harsh totalitarian rule that existed in Romania before to 1989.

During the time when communism was in power, he collaborated with Daniel Barbu and Radu Ciuceanu on the writing of two covert studies, which were then delivered to Radio Free Europe (RFE) to be broadcast in 1981 and 1985, respectively. He served as the vice-dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures from the years 2000 to 2004, and then as the director of the English Department of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures from 2008 until his retirement in 2021.

His last year of teaching will be in 2021. In addition to that, he oversaw the American Studies Program from the years 2012 to 2021. His leadership and kindness, as well as his resourcefulness and inventiveness, are qualities that we much miss. I pray that he finds eternal rest. His wife, daughter, and grandson are the only members of Professor Roske’s family to survive him. During this extremely trying time, we are keeping them in our thoughts and prayers.