Charlene Castellano

Charlene Castellano died on Monday, October 10 shortly before midnight. Born in Franklin Square, NY in 1949, she was the daughter of Charles and Gloria (Santoro) Castellano whom she loved dearly. She was the adored wife of Richard Becherer, sister of Maria Castellano Skirnick, and aunt of Gabriella Skirnick. Charlene was an accomplished Carnegie Mellon University Professor Emerita in the Modern Languages Department. She taught Russian language and literature at the College and Graduate levels. Educated at Georgetown (B.S.), Ohio State (M.A.) and Cornell (Ph.D.) Universities, Charlene was a faculty member of Cornell, Yale, and Ohio State Universities prior to her arrival in 1989 at Carnegie Mellon University. In addition to language instruction at all levels, she also inaugurated innovative literature-in- translation courses in her Department. Hers was a broad spectrum of cultural topics including Russian poetry, film, folklore, and music. She excelled in her teaching, a model of preparedness and decorum. Students learned important life lessons from her ever-mindful conduct, high standards, and fair-minded treatment. For these qualities, Charlene was esteemed and beloved by them. In addition to her Departmental duties, Charlene was a critical part of the inter-Departmental Russian Studies program at CMU where she directed many undergraduate Honors theses. She took particular pride in the fact that a number of her students went on to careers in higher education. Outside the University, Charlene was an avid music enthusiast lending support to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Opera, Chatham Baroque, and Resonance Works. She served for six years as President of the Squirrel Hill Chapter of the Friends of the Pittsburgh Opera. Charlene taught important lessons in her almost 40 years in academe, lessons not confined to the classroom. She showed us — students, friends, family — how to live with integrity, dignity, bravery, ferocity when necessary, and seemingly boundless love. The void her passing leaves in so many of our lives is immeasurable.  Friends will be received at John A. Freyvogel Sons, Inc., 4900 Centre Avenue at Devonshire Street (freyvogelfuneralhome.com) on Wednesday, October 12 from 4 pm to 8 pm. Funeral, Thursday, October 13, Mass of Christian Burial at St. Paul Cathedral, 10 am.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Charlene Castellano, please visit our floral store.