Submitted by Jeremy Saucier (PhD, '10)
Joseph Avitable (PhD, '09) passed away unexpectedly at home February 16, 2024. Born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1976, Joe earned a bachelor’s degree from Central Connecticut State University in 1999 and a master’s degree from Trinity College in Hartford, CT in 2002. In the fall of 2002, he began graduate study in the University of Rochester’s history department under the direction of Professor Joseph E. Inikori. Joe defended his dissertation, titled “The Atlantic World Economy and Colonial Connecticut” and earned his PhD in 2009.
As one of the few economic historians in a department filled with faculty and graduate students studying cultural and intellectual history, Joe’s research often flew under the radar. But few could match Joe’s enthusiasm and work ethic. His dissertation was a meticulously researched study of colonial Connecticut’s important role in the Atlantic economy. Because the bulk Connecticut’s Naval Office Shipping List and ship registers were destroyed in Benedict Arnold’s invasion of New London in 1781, Joe painstakingly reconstructed what he could of this source material from records on Connecticut ships found in East Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, Virginia, and islands in the West Indies.
Beyond his research, Joe was best known for his unmatched sense of humor, playfulness, and kindness. He was a constant source of laughter who was quick to find the humor in even the most challenging situations. He and his then wife Rachel held many gatherings of history graduate students at their apartment at Whipple Park. It was there that Joe would regularly meet up with his closest friends to watch bad horror movies.
Joe published several articles and reviews related to the history of colonial Connecticut, but his true passion was for teaching history. Over the course of his too brief career, he taught at the University of Rochester, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Northwestern Connecticut Community College, Albertus Magnus College, Quinnipiac University, and the University of New Haven.
In addition to his son, Jake Avitable, who was born while Joe pursued his PhD at UR, Joe is survived by his mother, Angelina Cable, his brother, Anthony Avitable, Jr., and sister-in-law, Kirstin Avitable, his brother, Michael Avitable, his nephew, Jordan, and his nieces, McGuire and Anistyn.
Obituary | Joseph Rafael Avitable of Wallingford, Connecticut | Wallingford & Yalesville Funeral Home
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