Frank J. Coppa

Frank John Coppa (July 18, 1937 – January 13, 2021) was an American historian, author, and educator who wrote widely on the Papacy in history as well as on Italian historical topics.

Life and recognition Born on July 18, 1937, in Brooklyn, New York, Coppa attended Brooklyn College (B.A., 1960) and the Catholic University of America (M.A., 1962; Ph.D., 1966). His dissertation, "Giolitti and Industrial Italy: An Analysis of the Interrelationship Between Giolitti's Economic Policy and His Political Program" was supervised by John K. Zeender. He received a Fulbright grant to study in Italy in 1964–1965.

Coppa began teaching at St. John's University in Jamaica, Queens, New York, in 1965 as an Instructor, and was promoted to Assistant Professor (1966), Associate Professor (1970), and Professor (1979). He was the founding director of the school's doctoral program in Modern World History, and retired in 2010. He was honored with the title of professor emeritus in 2012. In 2011, he received the first Lifetime Distinguished Scholarship Award from the American Catholic Historical Association. St. John's announced his death in January 2021, as well as "The Frank J. Coppa Endowed Scholarship in History." His obituary appeared in the January 30, 2021 edition of The Tablet.

Scholarship Coppa's dissertation topic was, "Giolitti and Industrial Italy: An Analysis of the Interrelationship Between Giolitti's Economic Policy and His Political Program." Many of his early publications dealt with topics pertaining to both Catholic and Italian history, such as Giolitti, Mazzini, Antonelli, Cavour, Garibaldi, and Columbus. Several of his early edited collections contain contributions by St. John's colleagues, including William D. Griffin, Eugene Kusielewicz, and Richard P. Harmond. Later in his career, Coppa also began to publish widely on the Papacy, including articles and books on Pio Nono, Pius XI, and Pius XII. He also authored/edited several widely respected books on the Papacy, including Encyclopedia of the Vatican and the Papacy (1999), The Great Popes Through History: An Encyclopedia (2002), The Papacy, the Jews and the Holocaust: From Nineteenth-Century Anti-Semitism to the Third Millennium (2006), and Politics and the Papacy in the Modern World (2008). His book Religion in the Making of Western Man (1974) is dedicated to his senior history department colleagues, Walter L. Willigan, Arpad F. Kovacs, and Borisz de Balla, "for many years of distinguished and loyal service to St. John’s University, New York."