Dr. M. Thomas Inge, lauded scholar of American literature and culture, prolific writer, and treasured member of the Randolph-Macon College faculty, died on Saturday, May 15, 2021.

A native of Newport News, Virginia, Professor Inge received in B.A. in English and Spanish from Randolph-Macon in 1959. Although he had wanted to be a cartoonist, he abandoned that goal for a love of literature and a desire to teach. He pursued his M.A. and Ph.D. in English and American literature from Vanderbilt University in 1960 and 1964, respectively, and went on to a distinguished teaching and research career at Vanderbilt University, Michigan State University, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Clemson University. It was at Michigan State in 1968 that he offered the first accredited course on American humor, introducing comic strips to the classroom and essentially opening up a new field of academic study. He moved to Virginia Commonwealth University shortly after it was founded and chaired the English department. Over the years, Inge donated his research materials, books, and original comic art to the VCU Libraries, where a special collection has been established in his name.

In 1984, Randolph-Macon’s 13th president, Dr. Ladell Payne, recruited Inge, a fellow Faulkner scholar, back to his alma mater. Dr. Inge joined the Randolph-Macon faculty as the Robert Emory Blackwell Professor of the Humanities. President Payne once said he considered his naming of Tom Inge to the Blackwell Chair “the most significant academic contribution to RMC [he] made during [his] tenure here as President.”

Over more than 35 years at Randolph-Macon, Dr. Inge taught popular courses across a broad range of fields including American Studies, interdisciplinary humanities, Asian literature, Southern literature and culture, American humor and satire, and film. He also continued his prolific research and writing; he authored or edited more than sixty books including Charles M. Schulz: Conversations, a collection of interviews with the creator of Peanuts, the first in a series of such collections.

“Tom Inge, through his own work and that of others he edited, explored the fascinating intersection of literature, film, and popular culture. For him, only such interdisciplinary work could get to the heart of what American culture was,” explained colleague and friend, Dr. Ted Schekels, Professor of English and Communication at Randolph-Macon College.

Professor Inge had an expansive world-view and served as a veteran Fulbright senior lecturer. He taught at the University of Salamanca in Spain and at three institutions in Buenos Aires, Argentina. On his third Fulbright appointment in 1979, he offered courses on American humor and literary regionalism at Moscow State University in the Soviet Union, and on his fourth Fulbright lectureship, taught at Charles University in Prague. He was also a resident Scholar with the U.S. Information Agency and consulted and lectured abroad in eighteen countries. He shared this passion with Randolph-Macon students by leading travel-study courses to the Soviet Union and China.

“While Professor Inge studied humor as an academic pursuit, he also saw it as a means of connecting with and bringing joy to other people,” remembered Randolph-Macon President Robert R. Lindgren. “A proud alumnus, Tom cared deeply about Randolph-Macon and made a point to attend campus events and to support his colleagues and his legions of students. This consummate gentleman and scholar will be profoundly missed by students, faculty, staff and alumni alike.”

Dr. Inge had planned to retire from teaching this spring and planned to remain on campus for at least another two years doing research. He was deeply devoted to his wife, Donaria, and his family.