Matilde Fava, Undergraduate School of Education (UGE) ’69 and an adjunct professor of communication in the School of Professional and Continuing Studies (PCS) who served Fordham for more than 45 years, died peacefully at her home on March 1, 2021, the first day of her retirement. Fava was 78. The cause of her death was cancer. 

Fava was born on Dec. 12, 1942, in Campania, Italy, and emigrated with her family to the Bronx in 1960. Her daughters said that she struggled as an immigrant woman but was determined to become a professor. She first worked in a factory, taking English classes on nights and weekends, while also helping care for her siblings. She began teaching first grade at Our Lady of Victory in Mount Vernon, New York, in 1962.