Obituary: Ercole Canale-Parola, professor emeritus of Microbiology

Ercole Canale-Parola, 83, professor emeritus of Microbiology, died March 29 in Amherst, following a brief illness.

Born in Frosinone, Italy, his early years were heavily impacted by the loss of his father at age 5, and the hardships of World War II.  As a child, he witnessed first-hand the Nazi occupation of Rome, the aerial bombing of the San Lorenzo neighborhood, the partisan attack in Via Rasella and the triumphant entrance of American forces into the fallen city.

 
In 1951, he left his studies at the University of Florence to join his mother, who had moved to Chicago and remarried.

Having no degree and speaking little English, Canale-Parola took a job dyeing candy in a gumball factory.

After serving in the Army, he resumed his education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he met his future wife of 57 years, Thelma. The couple went on to obtain their bachelor’s, master’s and doctorates at Illinois.

 

He joined the faculty in 1963 and was subsequently promoted to associate professor in 1967 and professor in 1973. He also headed the Microbiology Department for a number of years in the 1980s.

 

One of the world’s leading experts on spirochetes and during his long academic career, he served as mentor to countless other scientists who now conduct research, teach and are departments heads throughout the country and abroad.

 

He retired in 1994.

 

Thelma Canale-Parola, a former faculty member in French and Italian, died in 2011.

He leaves his children, Claudia and Daniel, and their spouses, five grandchildren, as well as by trillions and trillions of individual Canaleparolinas—a spirochete named in his honor.

 

Burial was in Wildwood Cemetery was on April 6. A memorial service will be held for both Ercole and Thelma in the fall.

Memorial donations may be made to the Jones Library 43 Amity St., Amherst 01002.