Robert Regan, English prof at Penn

Robert Regan, 86, of Philadelphia, a retired University of Pennsylvania English professor whose affinity for literature about the struggles of American life was rooted in his own challenging childhood, died of heart failure Tuesday, July 5, at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Regan, an expert in the works of such consequential authors as Mark Twain and Flannery O'Connor, found solace in his school studies as a boy growing up in poverty in Shreveport, La.

The son of a single parent, he helped his mother operate a country store sandwiched between poor black and white neighborhoods. His childhood fueled a work ethic that impelled him to graduate at the top of his class, and earn a Fulbright scholarship and degrees from Harvard University and the University of California at Berkeley.

Yet, his experience as a poor Southern boy who witnessed injustice and "grew up hungry" continued to influence him, said his daughter, Alison Regan.

Dr. Regan became involved in the civil rights movement, volunteering for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. At Penn, where he taught for more than 30 years, he focused his scholarly writings and studies on authors who "dramatized the human condition and told the story of America when it was a fairly new nation," his daughter said.

Born in Indianapolis, Dr. Regan moved with his mother to Shreveport when he was 3. His father left the family when Dr. Regan was a child.

In Louisiana, he lived in a small apartment above the neighborhood store that his mother operated. He worked hard and earned a bachelor's degree in English literature from Centenary College of Louisiana in Shreveport in 1951. He was awarded a scholarship to Harvard, where he received a master's degree, also in English literature, in 1952.

Dr. Regan joined the Navy and served in the Korean War and later joined the Navy Reserve, earning the rank of commander. He was called up to serve in Vietnam in the early 1960s.

After the Korean War, Dr. Regan returned to Centenary to teach and began volunteering in the civil rights movement with his mother, Alma McBride. They registered people to vote, and Dr. Regan encouraged activism among his students. But after crosses were burned on the lawns of several professors, colleagues urged him to leave the school, his daughter said.

Dr. Regan enrolled in the doctoral program at UC Berkeley and began teaching at the University of Virginia. He earned his Ph.D. in American literature in 1965 and was awarded a Fulbright scholarship two years later. He joined the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania in 1968. He served twice as the undergraduate chair of the English department.

Dr. Regan is the author of Unpromising Heroes, Mark Twain and His Characters and editor of Poe: A Collection of Critical Essays. He also served as a consultant on a PBS documentary about Edgar Allan Poe. He wrote articles for publications including Virginia Quarterly Review and Nineteenth-Century Fiction.

He married Carole Ann Bennett in the early 1960s, but the couple divorced after 25 years of marriage. He married Mary Katherine Hester in the mid-1980s.

In addition to his wife of 32 years and his daughter, Dr. Regan is survived by son Christopher Regan and daughter Amelia Regan. A graveside service was Friday at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd.

kholmes@phillynews.com

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