In Memoriam: Paul Bolgiano

Article by Maddy Lauria February 15, 2022

Campus community remembers professor emeritus, communications technology expert

Louis Paul Bolgiano, a communications technology expert and longstanding professor at the University of Delaware, passed away on Jan. 12, 2022, at the age of 99.

Dr. Bolgiano began his academic career at the University of Delaware in 1955 as an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering (now the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering). His research focused on communications technology, such as the quantum nature of electromagnetic radiation in radio communication, and he earned his full professorship in 1965.

Paul Bolgiano

He taught and mentored thousands of students throughout his 30-year career at the College of Engineering, including retired DuPont Co. researcher Michael Piovoso.

“I owe much of the success that I have had in life to him,” said Piovoso, an affiliated professor of electrical and computer engineering at UD who pursued his Ph.D. in the 1960s under Dr. Bolgiano’s guidance. “He was kind, generous, a marvelous professor and always acting in the best interest of his students. We have lost a wonderful human being.”

Piovoso, who also taught at UD while working at DuPont, said Dr. Bolgiano was an excellent professor who could take complex issues and break them down in an easily digestible way for students. Dr. Bolgiano’s background in physics gave him a deep understanding of the physical nature, which in turn helped him teach students how different lessons could be applied in the real world, he said.

“He was always there to give advice about everything, and he provided a real model for me as to the kind of person and the kind of teacher I wanted to be,” Piovoso said, also noting that Dr. Bolgiano was also a devoted family man and tennis player. “He was a colleague more than a professor, and it was such a pleasure to have known him.”

Paul Bolgiano, in an undated photo courtesy of the University of Delaware Archives and Records Management

Dr. Bolgiano also served as a member of the American Physical Society, the American Association of Physics Teachers, the American Institute of Physics and several honor societies. He retired from the University of Delaware in 1985, and was named professor emeritus that year.

According to Dr. Bolgiano’s obituary published in Delaware Online/The News Journal, he was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and studied engineering at Haverford College before joining the Navy during World War II, where he served as a lieutenant and radar maintenance operator. He then studied mathematics at John Hopkins University, where he earned his master’s degree and later his Ph.D. in nuclear physics.

University records show that, in 1953, Dr. Bolgiano received a Ford Foundation Fellowship for teaching at St. John’s College in Annapolis. He also was a junior instructor at Johns Hopkins University and an assistant professor at the United States Naval Academy.

In 2016, the Paul and Sally Bolgiano Professor of Physics endowment was inaugurated at Dr. Bolgiano’s alma mater, Haverford College. Walter Smith, who now holds the professorship, said it has been absolutely critical in supporting his work and research.

Services will be held privately. For online condolences, please visit Chandlerfuneralhome.com.