Following the brutal and mysterious murder of Penn graduate student James Saporito, students and faculty continue to mourn his loss.
Firefighters found 38-year-old Saporito dead in his mother's New Orleans home earlier this month after extinguishing a fire in the apartment.
Both Saporito and his mother died from multiple stab wounds, according to the Orleans Parish Coroner's office, but police told The Associated Press on Sept. 4 -- the day after the bodies were found -- that they had not yet determined a motive.
A detective from the New Orleans Police Department would not comment yesterday on the progress of the investigation.
Saporito, who received his B.A. in History from the University of California, Los Angeles, came to Penn in 1998, where he earned an M.A. in history, and was currently working toward a Ph.D. in modern European intellectual history.
According to friend and History graduate student Ben Mercer, Saporito was a truly "remarkable man" who was "gifted intellectually."
"He had a tremendous capacity for intellectual thought," he said.
Also, given his age, Saporito served as a mentor to some of the younger graduate students, according to his friends.
"He was the kind of person that you would sit in a bar with until 2 a.m. and then, when you left, just talk until dawn," friend and fellow history graduate student Sarah Van Beurden said. "He could put things in perspective."
Saporito had spent over a year in Paris doing research for his dissertation, and according to his adviser and History Professor Warren Breckman, was in New Orleans on a "stopover" before returning to Penn, where he was scheduled to work on an ethnohistory seminar this spring.
Saporito hoped to become a professor once he completed his Ph.D. and wanted to teach at "a quiet college somewhere," according to Van Beurden.
And Saporito seemed to be well on his way to becoming a professor, having worked as a teaching assistant for four history classes between 1999 and 2001.
Breckman remembers Saporito -- who won a Dean's Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Graduate Student in 2001 for his work as a TA in "20th Century European Intellectual History" -- as a "forceful and authoritative" presence in the classroom.
"I think that he would have had a very interesting career," said Breckman, who taught two classes in which Saporito served as his TA. "I think he cared deeply for his students, and I think without any question he would have been an excellent professor."
Friend and history graduate student Francesca Bregoli also remembered Saporito as "just brilliant."
"He was an intellectual model," she said. "He had a way of tackling issues.... He was very insightful."
But, Mercer was quick to add, intelligence was not the only quality which Saporito had to offer the world.
"He knew how to work, but he also knew how to have fun," Mercer said. "He combined brilliance of mind with a laid back attitude and sense of fun that was unique. He had an openness to anybody and everybody."
Bregoli added that Saporito was a man who truly enjoyed "the little things in life," such as eating in diners with his friends.
Van Beurden noted that when a graduate student was feeling stressed over papers or reading, Saporito would say things like, "People, people, this life is wonderful."
Saporito's sense of humor, which was "somewhat wry, sometimes sarcastic" was another one of his stand-out traits, according to Breckman.
His unique life experience -- friends mentioned that he used to drive a taxicab in California -- made him a good source of advice.
"James was always there if you needed someone to talk to or spend some time with," Mercer said.
Graduate students of the History Department will hold a memorial service to "do something worthy of his memory and fitting to who he was," Breckman said, adding that the department "grieves the loss of a very warm, caring person who had wonderful talents and a great future."
The service will be held on Thursday afternoon in the history lounge of College Hall, Room 209. Those interested in attending should contact the History Department for more information.
