Author, poet, and educator James Finn Cotter recently retired from teaching after 57 years of dedication and outstanding service to the Mount.
Cotter, a professor of English within the Division of Arts and Letters, began his tenure with the college in 1963. In his nearly six decades with the Mount, Cotter has taught in or chaired the Divisions of Humanities, Arts and Letters, and Religious Studies and Philosophy. His legacy is truly part of the DNA of the college, from his administrative service to the thousands of students on which he imparted a love of literature.
“Each day is a new day, and each class has new faces and voices that will share their learning,” Cotter explained. “Of course, I will miss the classroom, but my memories are real and remain in me alive and well.”
In addition to having enhanced the education of thousands of Mount students, Cotter is a celebrated translator of Dante’s Commedia, a Fulbright-Hays lecturer, and a recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant. Among a great many other publications, Cotter is the author of Beginnings: the First Twenty-Five Years of Mount Saint Mary College, A New Life: Learning the Way of Omega, and the Mount’s alma mater, which is sung at every Commencement ceremony.
Cotter was master of ceremonies at 40 Mount Commencements, just as he was for the Mount’s first Commencement in 1964. Only two people have led the procession in the entire history of the college: Cotter and professor emeritus James McEnery, who passed away in December of 2015.
In recognition of his contributions to the college, Cotter has been granted professor emeritus status.