St. Bonaventure University

The St. Bonaventure University community is mourning the passing of Dr. Pat Panzarella, longtime professor of English at St. Bonaventure, who passed away Sunday (Oct. 19, 2025) following open-heart surgery. Pat was 84.

In a distinguished Bonaventure career of more than 50 years (1965-2018), Pat contributed as much to the university outside the classroom as inside. Pat founded the Bonnies men’s and women’s tennis teams and coached both for decades. He was inducted into the university’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 2003.

Later in life, Pat learned Italian and created and ran a popular study abroad program for Bonaventure students at the Umbria Institute in Italy, which he and his wife, Jan, hosted. A man of many interests, Pat traveled to Italy many times, including to attend culinary school.

In 2015, a donation endowed the Pat Panzarella Professorship in the English Department, a title currently held by Dr. Kaplan Harris, chair of the department.

“Pat was the most senior member of the English Department when I arrived as the most junior, and his influence within and beyond our halls was legendary,” Harris said.

“As chair, he led the department with steadiness and grace through the turbulent years for higher education from 2009 to 2015. You could often find Pat on an elliptical machine in the Richter Center, headphones in place, listening to Italian lessons in preparation for the study abroad program that he directed for many years. Today, the department continues to honor his legacy through the annual Panzarella Writing Awards, which celebrate the passion for learning that defined his life and work.”

Dr. Lauren Matz, professor of English, knew Pat for 40 years.

“I learned about 17th-century English poetry in his summer graduate course in the 1970s, and later, as his junior colleague in the English Department for 30 years, I learned from his advice and example. He was always energetic and full of vitality. For him, the students always came first,” she said.

As a Chaucer scholar, Pat introduced the classic “Canterbury Tales” to generations of St. Bonaventure students. Matz recalled: “Six hundred years later, Chaucer’s famous words about one of the medieval pilgrims, the brilliant, humble, and generous Oxford scholar, are also a great description of Dr. Panzarella: ‘gladly would he learn and gladly teach.’”

When Dr. Matt King, now associate professor of English, interviewed for his position at the university, Pat’s warmth and good company convinced him he was ready to come to Bonaventure.

“Since I've known him, he's been a friendly and endearing presence. He made me feel comfortable at Bonaventure, encouraged and guided me. It was a pleasure and privilege to work with him,” King said.

A stately plaque on the first floor of Plassmann Hall commemorates Pat’s faithful and exemplary service to St. Bonaventure and its students.

A celebration of Pat’s life will be held Saturday, Nov. 15, at Mission Concepción in San Antonio, Texas, where Pat and Jan had moved after retiring to be closer to family. His complete obituary can be found here.

Upon his retirement from full-time teaching in 2015 — Pat taught part-time until 2018 — the Times Herald interviewed Pat about his remarkable career and the enduring legacy he left at the university.