Obituary: Daniel Felicetti

Daniel Felicetti

1942-2024

Daniel A. Felicetti, one of the first students to receive a scholarship from the Roothbert Fund, died on March 5, 2024. In 1959, Albert Roothbert personally selected three applicants (out of twenty who applied) to receive grants from the newly-established Fund. One was Daniel Felicetti, then a seventeen-year-old senior at Charles Evans Hughes High School in New York City. “Makes a good impression, father superintendent at apartment house” wrote Mr. Roothbert on the application.  

Dan used his grants ($400 annually for four years) to attend Hunter College, graduating with a B. A. in political science in 1963. During his time at college he and Albert Roothbert maintained a robust correspondence with Dan scrupulously reporting his grades, providing copies of some papers and updates on his success on the debate team. Upon graduation, his parents, Ernest and Rose Felicetti, wrote Mr. and Mrs. Roothbert: 

At this time we would like to express our deepest gratitude for all the kind and generous help you have given to Dan. Without your assistance his 4 years of college would have been a great hardship for the family. God bless you for the wonderful work you are doing.   

Felicetti then moved on to New York University, earning an M. A. in 1966 and a Ph. D. in 1971, both in the field of political science. His dissertation, Mental Health and Retardation Politics: The Mind Lobbies of Congress, was published by Praeger in 1976.  

Beginning his teaching career at Notre Dame College of Staten Island and CCNY, he moved to Fairfield University in Connecticut, later becoming chairman of their Department of Politics. He then transitioned into administration and was successively at Wheeling College in WV, the College of New Rochelle in NY, and Southeastern University in Washington, DC. He was Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of Detroit, 1984-1989. 

From 1989 to 1999 Felicetti was president of Marian College, a Franciscan institution in Indianapolis, Indiana. He was president of Capital University, affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church, in Columbus, Ohio from 1999 to 2001.  

Throughout his career he was in frequent contact with Carl Solberg, president of the Fund from 1965 to 1995. Several students whom he recommended received grants from the Fund. Upon Carl’s retirement in 1995, Felicetti wrote to him: 

Your announced retirement as President of the Roothbert Fund comes as a disruption in “the way the world is.” Although these deviations from normalcy are supposed to come along in life from time to time, they are not always so easy to imagine. You have been a wonderful leader and a steady friend, even as distance has intruded on continuity. My affection and support are with you and Blake as you continue in new ways to live the dream of Albert and Toni.    

In retirement he and his wife, Barbara D’Antonio Felicetti, whom he married in 1969, settled in Annapolis, Maryland. From time to time he would help with interviewing candidates for scholarships in the Washington, DC area.  

The couple had no children. Barbara Felicetti died in 2019. The Board of Directors of the Fund offers its deep sympathy to John Felicetti, his nephew, and other members of the Felicetti family on the passing of Dan, who was in many ways the quintessential “Roothbertian.”