Nondita Mason, English Professor
Nondita Mason, a retired professor of postcolonial literature and theory at Hunter College, died on Sept. 25 at her Manhattan apartment, one day after returning from a 23-day trip to Italy, Greece, and Turkey with her husband, Bryant Mason.
The couple had climbed the Acropolis and visited the Parthenon in Athens; cruised to Santorini, Rhodes, Patmos, Mykonos, and Limnos; heard classical music at an illuminated Greek amphitheater at Ephesus in Turkey; toured Istanbul, and visited the Coliseum and the Vatican in Rome.
The cause was long-term complications of bronchiectasis, a disease for which there is no cure. “After 15 years of suffering with this disease, she simply ran out of energy,” her husband wrote. She was 73.
Ms. Mason began her tenure with Hunter College’s English department in 1980, and regularly taught a course on V.S. Naipaul, the focus of her doctoral dissertation at New York University. She served on the college’s sexual harassment investigation panel in 1995 and retired in 2008.
Her husband described her as “a private person and a consummate communicator in her daily life” who loved people. “She was radiant with energy when preparing for and engaging with students in her classrooms.” She always took note when students were “full of questions and surprises,” but was firm when they did not live up to expectations, her husband said. She strived to inspire them to weave their perspectives with accurate information and “logically progressive thoughts.”
In announcing her death to faculty, the English department called her a “superb teacher, a valued mentor to junior colleagues, and an inspiring colleague,” Mr. Mason said. She brought compassion, intelligence, and insight to everything she did at the college, her colleagues said.
The Masons met in India in 1967 and married the following year after Mr. Mason had completed two years in the Peace Corps. They lived in Manhattan and on Atlantic Avenue in Amagansett.
“Nondita appreciated the ever-changing light facets as they played across East End clouds and landscapes,” her husband said.
Ms. Mason was born in Kolkata, India, on Aug. 13, 1942, to Hari Pada and Suniti Chadhury. She grew up there, attending Presidency College, where she earned a master’s degree in English.
“She possessed a gentle, gracious spirit and a calm, regal bearing,” her husband said. “Living with her and exploring life for 47 years was such an oasis of kindness and grace amidst the relentlessness of college and life.” She was passionate in her opinions, but “she didn’t want me to do things her way,” he said. “She wanted me to do them the right way.”
She had a keen sense of justice and was a consummate follower of current events who rarely missed a broadcast of Amy Goodman’s “Democracy Now,” checked The Guardian newspaper online, and loved to read The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books, her husband said.
Ms. Mason also enjoyed cooking and loved the challenge of a new recipe. “Then, after guests had filled their plates, she found more enjoyment sitting across from interesting people who stated their opinions and talked passionately about issues that matter,” Mr. Mason said.
In addition to her husband, she is survived by a sister, Amita Samanta of Kolkata, and three brothers, Prodip Chaudhury of Washington, D.C., Sanat Chaudhury of Heidelberg, Germany, and Dilip Kumar Chaudhury of Kolkata.
Her ashes will be spread at the Ganges River in India.
A memorial service is being planned for Dec. 6.