[Important Information for Employees] The Death of Dr. Janet Groth

[Gerianne Downs]

Dear Campus Community Members,

We were saddened to have learned about the passing of Dr. Janet Groth,
professor emerita of English, who died June 11, 2025 at Wartburg Retirement
Community near New York City. She was 88.

Dr. Groth joined the faculty as an assistant professor of English in
September 1982. In September 1989 she was promoted to associate professor
and full professor in 1995. She retired as a full professor in December
2000. All this after a colorful career as a receptionist on the 18 floor of
the New Yorker Magazine, a job that had her rubbing elbows with the famous
and infamous. In 2012, she wrote about her 21 years at the culturally
iconic magazine: “Receptionist: An Education at the New Yorker.” She
returned to campus shortly after its publication to speak, the story of
which can be found here:
https://www.plattsburgh.edu/news/news-archive/former-prof-to-share-front-desk-view-of-new-yorkers-golden-age.html
.

Dr. Groth had taught at Vassar College, Brooklyn College, the University of
Cincinnati and Columbia University. A former Fulbright lecturer in Norway
and visiting fellow at Yale, she was the author of “Edmund Wilson: A Critic
for Our Time,” a Northeast Modern Language Association award-winner, and
co-author of “Critic in Love: A Romantic Biography of Edmund Wilson.”

A celebration of her life will be held at a Mass of the Resurrection
Saturday, Aug. 9 at 2 p.m. at St. Peter’s Church, 619 Lexington Ave., New
York, N.Y., 10022, 212-935-2200. Burial will follow in the parish’s
columbarium. Her full obituary can be found at
https://www.saintpeters.org/parish-life/janet-groth.

Our condolences to all who knew and loved her.

Be well and stay cool. It’s a scorcher today.

Gerianne



*GERIANNE DOWNS*

(She/her/hers)

Associate Director of Communications

Office of the President

151 Hawkins Hall

101 Broad Street

Plattsburgh, N.Y. 12901

(o) 518-564-3094

(f) 518-564-2094

Vice President for Professionals

United University Professions

*plattsburgh.edu <http://plattsburgh.edu/>*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ls.plattsburgh.edu/pipermail/critical-employees/attachments/20250716/7a848f88/attachment.htm>