Boston University College of Fine Arts professor John Joseph Daverio, who friends said devoted his life to the Boston University community and his music, was found dead in the Charles River on Monday evening. He was 48.
Daverio, chairman of BU’s musicology department and Allston resident, was a beloved professor and a world-renowned scholar. Family, friends and students, who were shocked by his disappearance, said yesterday that his dedication and passion will leave a void in the community.
Born and raised in Sharon, Penn., Daverio excelled in school and began to play the violin at age 11. He chose the violin because he thought it was the most difficult instrument to master and immediately showed signs of future greatness, according to his father, John Daverio, 85, of Sharon.
‘Everybody knew him for what he was,’ his father said yesterday. ‘He was not just good in one subject; he was good in absolutely everything.’
Daverio came to BU as a student after his junior year at Sharon High School. He earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees at BU and began teaching music at the university in 1979. He was honored with the BU Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1997.
Many of Daverio’s students praised his teaching ability and his kindness.
‘It’s just amazing the way he was able to deliver the information,’ said Nancy Ackerman, one of Daverio’s former students. ‘I can only say nice things about him.’
‘He always had good things to say about everyone and was always happy to see us,’ said Jamie Kilpatrick, a CFA freshman.
In addition to teaching, Daverio traveled around the world to play his violin with world-renowned orchestras and to lecture at music events. He was recognized internationally as an expert on composer Robert Schumann.
He wrote ‘Robert Schumann: Herald of a ‘New Poetic Age” in 1997 and ‘Crossing Paths: Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms’ in September 2002. He also wrote and contributed to several other books and articles on music and musicians.
Daverio received several distinguished awards for music, including the American Musicology Society’s Alfred Einstein Prize in 1988 for scholarly writing in musicology, a field that studies how history and culture manifest themselves in music. He also served as president of the New England chapter of the American Musicology Society from 1990 to 1992.
Those who knew him said his musical greatness was matched by his caring personality.
‘He always had a great empathy for his students and treated his colleagues with a great deal of respect,’ said Janice Fillippi, Daverio’s former secretary in the School of Music.
‘He was just a very fine human being,’ Fillippi said
A friend and neighbor who asked not to be identified by name recalled seeing Daverio talk before a performance at Symphony Hall.
‘All the people sitting around me were talking about how wonderful he was,’ she said. ‘There were a lot of older ladies sitting around him, and they were very taken with him.’
An only child, Daverio is survived by his parents, John and Margaret, of Sharon, Penn., and several cousins.
A private funeral will be held in Sharon next week. University officials said they are working to establish a fund to which students can donate in Daverio’s name.
-Staff writers Allison Brown, Jordan Carleo-Evangelist and Joshua Karlin-Resnick contributed to this report.