Erik G.R. Nakjavani

It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Professor Erik Nakjavani on September 27, 2026, in Lancaster, PA. “Papa Erik” was known in equal measure as a fiercely loving and devoted family patriarch and a towering intellectual with a scholarly career spanning more than seven decades.

Erik was born in Tehran, Iran in 1934 to Mahmood Nakjavani and Nosrat Iravani Nakjavani. From his earliest childhood, he was passionate about language. As he wrote upon his retirement: “I had been in love with the written language ever since I could remember—even before I could read.”

In his late teens he moved to London, where he studied at the Carlyle and Grayson Preparatory School and began to contemplate a profession dedicated to language and literature. His parents had a different, more practical plan for him, sending him to West Virginia University on a Petroleum Engineering scholarship. It was in Morgantown that he met Jeanne, his beloved wife of 65 years, and returned to pursuing his original dream. He graduated with a first degree in American and French Literature and Psychology, followed by a master’s degree in French. He went on to earn a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. A Professor of Comparative Literature and French for 35 years, he began his teaching career at the University of Pittsburgh in Oakland before joining Pitt-Bradford after its first year and playing a major role in the development of the young campus.

Erik’s intellectual work epitomized the spirit of true interdisciplinary inquiry. As a scholar, he seamlessly traversed the realms of literary theory, linguistics, politics, psychology, philosophy, art and aesthetics, music, poetry, and even theoretical physics and mathematics. His intellectual journey began with the works of Ernest Hemingway, and he was a founding member of the Hemingway Society. Over his lifetime, however, his work extended far beyond Hemingway and across the humanities. For Erik, literature was never an isolated discipline, but a doorway into the larger questions of “lived experience,” a phrase he used often. He was widely published in leading academic journals and edited collections and presented his scholarship around the world. Yet he also believed deeply in engaging readers beyond the academy, writing regular newspaper columns not only about his field but also about the major political questions of the day.

Erik’s passion for learning extended to the world around him. He would often greet visiting family with the simple question: “What is new?” He was endlessly curious about the places he encountered, with a voracious love of travel that took him throughout the United States and around the world. He delighted in discovering new foods, immersing himself in different musical traditions, and finding beauty in the natural world, especially in his cherished trees.

For all of Erik’s intellectual curiosity, he reserved his deepest love for his family. He leaves behind his devoted wife of 65 years, Jeanne, an artist and writer; his daughter, Kirsten Nakjavani Bookmiller, and his son-in-law, Robert Bookmiller; and his adored grandson, Sebastian Bookmiller. Both Kirsten and Robert followed in Erik’s footsteps as academics, a source of great fatherly pride, while he was especially delighted that Seb graduated from the University of Pittsburgh, a place that held such significance in Erik’s life.

The profound love that binds Erik to his family is captured in these words from Rumi, whose poetry held a special place in his heart:

“Goodbyes are only for those who love with their eyes, because for those who love with heart and soul, there is no such thing as separation.”

In remembrance of Erik’s concerns for food insecurity and animal welfare, in lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial contributions be made in his name to either The Loft Community Partnership (P.O. Box 115, Millersville, PA 17551 / www.loftcp.org) or the Pet Pantry of Lancaster County (26 Millersville Road, Lancaster, PA 17603 / www.petpantrylc.org).