Retired English Prof. Douglas T. Day, III died at his home Oct. 10 of what was apparently a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Albemarle County Police told The Washington Post. He was 72.
Day, who worked closely with University President John T. Casteen, III as a student, was beloved by his contemporaries.
Day earned his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees at the University where he taught for 38 years until his retirement in 2000.
While at the University, Day was noted for his extensive work on a variety of subjects, from Latin American literature to creative writing. His lectures and classes were popular with students, including Casteen.
"He was a University hero when I was an undergraduate student -- brilliant, dashing, clever, thoughtful," Casteen said.
English Dept. Chair Gordon Braden said Day's personal style made him stand out from other professors.
"He was quite famous as a lecturer -- he had a beautiful voice," Braden said.
Day won the 1974 National Book Award for his biography of "Under the Volcano" author Malcolm Lowry. He also restored William Faulkner's novel "Flags in the Dust" to its original form and edited a collection of Federico Garcia Lorca's plays.
Day also wrote two novels -- "Journey of the Wolf" in 1978, which won the Rosenthal Award of the American Academy-Institute of Arts and Letters, and "The Prison Notebooks of Ricardo Flores Magon" in 1991.
Born in Panama and fluent in Spanish, Day held a lifelong interest in Latin America and its literature. He was a visiting professor at universities in Mexico and Brazil among others, was a member of the South American Explorers Club and traveled extensively to Central and South America. From 1965-1966, he taught at the University of Zaragoza, Spain on a Fulbright lectureship.
Later in his career, Braden said, Day devoted more time to teaching fiction and creative writing.
Casteen praised the breadth of Day's work.
"He moved away from the mainstream in scholarship and thinking and began to address issues that are nowadays very much in the mainstream but that were hardly explored when he first moved toward them," Casteen said.
Day also enjoyed a variety of other interests, from photography to sports cars to collecting tribal artifacts.
"He could talk about flying and Porsches and photography and ways of thinking with a facility and freshness of perspective that always left me or us with a wealth of things to ponder and to return to later, and he did this always with kindness and wit," Casteen said. "His death is a terrible loss."
Day is survived by his wife, Sheila McMillen Day, three sons, Douglas Turner Day IV, Ian Christopher Day and Patrick Ashby Day, one daughter, Emily Forsyth Day Whitworth and seven grandchildren.
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