Catalano Sr., Cosmo Anthony

Cosmo Anthony Catalano Sr., 83, of Iowa City, passed away peacefully on Thursday, Jan. 27, 2011, at Oaknoll Health Center, Iowa City. His body has been donated to the University of Iowa Department of Anatomy. There will be a memorial service in Iowa City at Trinity Episcopal Church in the spring.

Cosmo was born Feb. 10, 1927, in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, to Fabian and Mary Catalano. He served with the Navy's Pacific Fleet, receiving an honorable discharge in 1946. He then entered Allegheny College, where he met and married Josephine Abbott Smith in 1948. He completed his B. A. degree at Allegheny in 1950, followed by an MFA from the Yale School of Drama in 1953.

Catalano held professional appointments at Ohio University and the University of Massachusetts before joining the University of Iowa Theatre Department in 1966. He was professor in charge of acting and directing, department chair, and managing director of the Iowa Summer Rep.

Catalano directed over 100 productions for the University Theatre Department. In collaboration with the School of Music he directed several large-scale musicals and 13 operas presented in Hancher Auditorium. He also performed in and directed several productions at Iowa City's Riverside Theatre. He was also a regular member of the Iowa City/Johnson County Senior Center's Voices of Experience.

Professor Catalano played a major role in the founding of the American College Theatre Festival, and two of his Iowa productions advanced to the national ACTF Showcase at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

He was honored with the Kennedy Center/ACTF Gold Medallion for Lifetime Service in 1993.

He is survived by his wife, Jo; daughter, Lee; son, Cosmo Jr. and his wife, Mary Pfister; two grandchildren, Cosmo III and Margaret Josephine; two brothers, Richard and Robert; and his sister, Rosmarie and her husband, John Dennis.

He was preceded in death by his daughter, Tess.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Cosmo and Josephine Catalano Fellowship Fund at the University of Iowa Foundation or to Trinity Episcopal Church.

Online condolences and memories may be left for the family at under obituaries.