We are saddened to announce that Milton R. Stern, founding chairman of the Connecticut Humanities Council and a longtime professor of English at the University of Connecticut, died on July 26, 2011, in Needham, Massachusetts at age 82.

A passionate advocate of public education and social responsibility, Stern was dedicated to the idea that literature could be a means to personal and community transformation.

Milton Stern was born August 22, 1928, in Boston, the son of David and Elizabeth Stern. He married Harriet Marks in 1949 and joined the English Department at the University of Connecticut in 1958 where taught American literature until his retirement in 1991. Milton Stern was the author of numerous books, articles and reviews.

He received many distinctions over the years including a grant from the American Council of Learned Societies in 1960, the Outstanding Teacher Award at University of Connecticut in 1969, a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1971, and the first Alumni Association Distinguished Professor award at the University of Connecticut in 1976. He was a Fellow at the National Humanities Institute at Yale University in 1977 and a fellow at the Modern Media Institute Center in St. Petersburg, Fla., in 1979. He was named Outstanding Alumnus in Arts and the Humanities by Northeastern University in 1981. In 1983, he was the first recipient of the Connecticut Humanities Council's Wilbur Cross Award, honoring his outstanding contributions to the applied humanities.

At the humanities council Stern sought to spread literacy and bring cultural programs to the state. In 1976 he spoke out against the commercialism that risked turning the nation's bicentennial into a "buy-centennial" -- with its red, white and blue toilet paper and dog food packages festooned with stars and eagles.

"Where is the great competition for the creation of prize-winning architecture that will illustrate how our mature nation has learned to marry its enormous technology to human use and to the human desire for beauty?" Stern lamented during a speech at the Old State House. He called for juried bicentennial awards and the "commissioning of the great symphony, the great opera, the great play, the great novel."

Known to all as Mickey, he was devoted to family and community. He leaves his wife, Harriet Marks Stern, daughter Kathy and son-in-law Jack Beinashowitz, son Paul and daughter-in-law Beth Zeeman, and three grandchildren, Alex, Anna, and Isabel.

An on-line site is being designed for friends to share their stories, thoughts and pictures. Please email contributions to rememberingmickey@gmail.com and they will placed in a web site to be launched on August 22nd at www.mickeystern.net.

The CHC is honored that the family has asked that donations in Milton Stern's memory be made to the Connecticut Humanities Council to help fund reading and cultural programs. Gifts can be mailed to the CHC at 37 Broad Street, Middletown, CT 06457 or made online via the CHC's secure online donation page.