Cosmo Anthony Catalano Sr., professor emeritus in the Department of Theatre Arts, died on January 27, 2011, in Iowa City. He was 83.

Cosmo was born on February 10, 1927 in Cleveland Heights, Ohio to Fabian and Mary Catalano. He served with the Navy’s Pacific Fleet, receiving an Honorable Discharge in 1946. He then entered Allegheny College; where he met and married Josephine Abbott Smith in 1948. He completed his BA at Allegheny in 1950, followed by an MFA from the Yale School of Drama in 1953.

Catalano held professional appointments at Ohio University and the University of Massachusetts before joining the University of Iowa Theatre Department in 1966. He served as professor in charge of acting and directing, department chair, and managing director of the Iowa Summer Rep.

Catalano directed over 100 productions for the Department of Theatre Arts. In collaboration with the School of Music he directed several large-scale musicals and 13 operas presented in Hancher Auditorium. He also performed in and directed several productions at Iowa City’s Riverside Theatre, and was a regular member of the Iowa City/Johnson County Senior Center’s Voices of Experience.

Professor Catalano played a major role in the founding of the American College Theatre Festival, and two of his Iowa productions advanced to the national ACTF Showcase at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. He was honored with the Kennedy Center/ACTF Gold Medallion for Lifetime Service in 1993.

He is survived by his wife Jo, daughter Lee, son Cosmo Jr. and his wife Mary Pfister, two grandchildren Cosmo III and Margaret Josephine, two brothers Richard and Robert, and his sister Rosmarie and her husband John Dennis. He was preceded in death by his daughter Tess.