Alban K. Forcione ’60

Albie graduated from the Landon School, Bethesda, Md., where he played football and baseball and was president of his class. He followed his brother, Eugene ’59, to Princeton. With us he continued both sports as a freshman and went on to captain the 150-pound football team. He majored in European civilization and served as president of Cannon Club. 

He concentrated his academic efforts on European literature and began his lifelong devotion to the works of Cervantes: his senior thesis; a master’s degree at Harvard in comparative literature in Spanish, Italian, and English; a post-graduate Fulbright in Spain and Germany; and a Ph.D. thesis at Princeton, again on Cervantes. He then joined the Princeton faculty in the departments of Romance Languages and of Spanish and Portuguese studies. 

Albie spent the majority of his tenure at Princeton as the Emery L. Ford Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature, with numerous interim appointments as Distinguished Visiting Professor elsewhere. He wrote several seminal works on Cervantes and mentored numerous graduate scholars who went on to their own distinguished careers. 

Albie died Sept. 14, 2021. Surving are son Michael and brother Eugene. He was predeceased by his wife, Renate, and one of his two sons, Mark. In later years he enjoyed retirement in Princeton with his companion, Joyce Gardiner. To her and all his family we offer our sympathies.