The yellow ribbons still hang on John Daverio’s office doorknob in the College of Fine Arts. ‘Return in safety, Johnny D,’ one says, its crumpled end dragging along the floor next to a small bunch of red and white flowers.
Daverio, however, will never return to this office a fact that has devastated his friends, colleagues and students and left an entire community in shock following the death of the distinguished, well-liked professor.
Daverio had been missing since March 16, before his body was discovered in the Charles River on Monday night. Police yesterday listed the cause of death as drowning, but said the exact manner of Daverio’s death was still under investigation.
Whatever the circumstances surrounding it, however, Daverio’s death has sent CFA faculty, students and administrators reeling from the loss of the world-renowned musical scholar.
‘This an extremely sad day for Boston University’s College of Fine Arts and community,’ CFA dean ad interim Walt Meissner said in a press conference yesterday afternoon. Daverio’s death is ‘shocking and devastating to us all,’ he said.
Daverio, a gifted violinist who arrived at Boston University as a student nearly 32 years ago and stayed on as a professor, was chairman of the musicology department and was remembered by friends and colleagues as a brilliant scholar and extraordinary teacher.
School of Music director Andre de Quadros called Daverio ‘a multifaceted genius,’ noting Daverio’s expertise in the works of Romantic composer Robert Schumann.
‘John Daverio was one of the most distinguished musical scholars who has graced these four walls,’ de Quadros said.
In addition to his musical scholarship, de Quadros said Daverio showed a strong dedication to his students.
Daverio was a ‘distinguished, provocative, fine, scintillating teacher,’ he said.
CFA professor Elizabeth Seitz, a close friend of Daverio, said his death has had a profound impact on the CFA community.
‘We’re just going to all miss him,’ she said. ‘He was absolutely the backbone of this place and it has devastated everybody. We’re all going to have to lean on each other for a very long time.’
Meissner said members of the Musicology Department are working with de Quadros to teach Daverio’s classes for the rest of the year.
He also said students and staff have a variety of resources at their disposal, including clergy at Marsh Chapel and mental health specialists at Student Health Services.
CFA students were formally told of Daverio’s death via e-mail yesterday. The college, however, held an informal gathering yesterday afternoon, where CFA officials informed students of the circumstances surrounding Daverio’s death and allowed a chance for students to ask questions or express their feelings.
Students in attendance said Meissner noted that the school will hold a memorial service in the near future, likely to be followed by a concert featuring music Daverio would have liked. Meissner also said CFA is looking into setting up a fund to assist Daverio’s parents and to possibly donate to a charity Daverio would have supported.
Michael Diorio, a first-year doctoral student who took a research and bibliography class with Daverio last semester, said Daverio made the class entertaining with his dry sense of humor and self-deprecating wit.
‘We all admired him so much,’ Diorio said.
He said his ‘heart just dropped’ when he found out about Daverio’s disappearance, a feeling that ‘got even worse as time progressed and you knew something was wrong because he always was so well put together.’
Emily Borababy, a CFA freshman who was in Daverio’s Concert Music class, noted the deep emotional effects of Daverio’s death on the college at large.
‘I was very upset at how it was going to affect everyone here,’ she said. ‘People just seemed saddened by his disappearance.’
CFA freshman Courtney Kaltbacker said she was most struck by the school community’s reaction to the death.
‘It’s just different to see how everyone else is reacting,’ Kaltbacker said. ‘So many people are really hurting. It’s a very close community, and it’s just shocking to see something this difficult.’