Spirited Adams Tutor, 48, Dies

Janet A. Viggiani, a former Adams House Senior Tutor known for the strong relationships she forged with students and colleagues and her love of dancing and House spirit, died last Friday after a lengthy battle with breast cancer. She was 48.

“What was so wonderful about Janet was that there were many sides to her,” said Loker Professor of English Robert J. Kiely ’60, who was Adams House Master during Viggiani’s time at the House.

During her years as senior tutor, from 1989 to 1992, Viggiani also served as the assistant dean for co-education and chaired the Administrative Board’s task force on date rape.

“When she was being the senior tutor and dean, she was a very mature, thoughtful and sane person, but she also loved the colorfulness of Adams House at that time, because she had a crazy and funny side to her,” Kiely said.

In her role as assistant dean, Viggiani started the College’s first gay, lesbian and bisexual caucus that included administrators, faculty members and students.

“She was a great defender of sexual minorities,” said Adams House Assistant to the Senior Tutor Otto F. Coontz. “She was very supportive of anyone dealing with any kind of issues.”

Viggiani had a unique ability to connect with the students she counseled and the staff members surrounding her, colleagues said.

“She was so welcoming and stable a presence,” Kiely said. “Everyone who knew her thought they had a very personal friendship with her. She was someone you could trust but also someone who cared about you.”

“She would just listen, never override anyone and was always completely engaged in whoever was talking,” said Assistant to the Masters Victoria R. Macy. “She touched many, many lives.”

Viggiani’s colleagues said she was always respectful to everyone who worked with her—from the dining hall workers to the House Masters.

“She had this attitude that if she ever saw anyone talking down to the support staff, it was immediately a clue that this was not a kindred soul,” Coontz said. “This makes her a bit of an anomaly for an administrator in academia.”

Not only was Viggiani unusually caring, her friends said she also loved House social events—even if it meant dressing in drag.

“She had a lot of panache—you always knew when she was in your midst,” Coontz said. “She was the first senior tutor, that I know of, to participate in drag night. She loved to party.”

Viggiani didn’t limit her fun to parties in the Adams House dining hall, but often went out to dance at local night clubs. This had the potential to cause unexpected situationsfor some of the students living in her House, Coontz said.

“One night when we were out dancing, we went to a gay bar by MIT and ran into some underage undergrads from the house,” Coontz said. “Some looked very sheepish, but one was so wasted that he came up to her and started dancing. She was very cool about it, but she decided that maybe it was not such a good idea to go to clubs so close to the House.”

Viggiani filled her office with toys and unusual items designed to put students at ease, like the four-foot long model of a Ticonderoga pencil that now hangs above Coontz’ desk.

She tried to connect with the students, Coontz said, rather than simply enforcing rigid policies.

“Her sense of justice really didn’t fit the model of blind judging,” Coontz said. “She always saw the shades of gray, and tried to err on the side that would help students.”

Viggiani continued to pursue her aspirations after being diagnosed with breast cancer, Coontz said.

“She said, ‘What am I going to do, sit around and wait to die? Damn, no I’m going to go to law school,’” he remembered. “She got very frustrated with anyone telling her she shouldn’t do something or plan too far in advance.”

At that point, Viggiani left her job as a senior tutor, took a summer road trip around the country and returned to Cambridge to attend Harvard Law School.

“She was so full of great confidence and independence as a woman,” Kiely said.

Despite her many credentials—including a doctorate from the Harvard School of Education she earned while serving as a senior tutor and involvement in University programs on women’s and sexual orientation issues—Viggiani was “incredibly humble” and “down to earth,” Macy said.

“She was a completely original and incredibly intelligent and loving person,” Kiely said. “There was nobody quite like her.”