Lenora D. Wolfgang, French professor emeritus at Lehigh University and literary scholar, has died at 91
She earned three degrees in French at the University of Pennsylvania and taught French and French literature at Lehigh for 26 years.
Lenora D. Wolfgang, 91, of Philadelphia, French professor emeritus at Lehigh University, literary researcher and translator, author, teacher, mentor, and artist, died Thursday, May 14, of heart failure at her home near the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Professor Wolfgang, or, as many of her Lehigh students and colleagues called her, Madame Wolfgang, planned to study art in Paris after high school and live as a painter. But, she told her family, she became so enthralled by the French language at Philadelphia High School for Girls that she curbed her art aspirations, earned three degrees in French at the University of Pennsylvania, and taught French and French literature at Lehigh for 26 years.
Inspired by professors at Penn, she became an expert in medieval French language and literature, and her doctoral dissertation and first book were a translation and analysis of an 800-verse prologue to a 13th-century French poem. She studied in France on a Fulbright Scholarship in 1956 and ‘57, and in Spain on a grant from the American Council of Learned Societies in 1978.
She wrote two books on French poetry, served research fellowships with the National Endowment for the Humanities in the 1980s and ‘90s, and earned a grant from the American Philosophical Society in 1981 to transcribe manuscripts at the National Library in Paris. In 1990, reviewers at Penn’s French Forum journal said her second book, also on 13th-century French poetry, “provides the modern scholar with a standard text and thorough apparatus that will serve current and future generations well.”
She belonged to many academic language and literature organizations, and was a student adviser and faculty committee member at Lehigh. In tributes, former colleagues called her “a true mentor” and “a real mensch.” One said: “It was clear that I had an ally in Lenora and that she wanted me to succeed.”
A former student said she was “a good friend and sounding board” in a 2025 interview with the Lehigh alumni relations department. “She was always ready to help, share her knowledge,” a former colleague said, “and always did it with tact and unselfishness.”
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Professor Wolfgang earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and a doctorate in French at Penn. She taught French classes at Penn, Temple, and Rutgers Universities, as well as high schools in Philadelphia, before joining Lehigh’s Department of Modern Languages and Literature in 1980.
She commuted three hours round trip to Lehigh in Bethlehem, Pa., from West Philadelphia three days a week and was promoted from assistant professor to associate professor in 1986, then to full professor in 1989. She retired from Lehigh in 2006.
After Lehigh, Professor Wolfgang taught continuing education classes about French playwright Molière and other topics to adults at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Temple. After the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown ended, she returned to the institute briefly as a student.
Professor Wolfgang was adept at painting as a girl in West Philadelphia, and she won several art competitions, and later showed her photography at Penn’s Faculty Club. “She was a natural talent,” her family said in a tribute.
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Lenora Divida Poden was born Sept. 25, 1934, in Philadelphia. Her parents immigrated from Poland and Romania, and her mother left the family when Professor Wolfgang was in junior high school.
She and her father also had to hide their Jewish heritage and alter their last name to minimize antisemitic attacks. “Yet Lenora overcame these challenges,” her family said, “excelled academically, and rose to the top of her academic field.”
An exceptional student, she was valedictorian of both her 1952 senior high school class at Girls’ High and her 1956 senior undergraduate class at Penn’s Women’s College. She married Marvin Wolfgang, a professor at Penn, in 1957, and they had daughters Karen and Nina, and lived in University City.
In 1977, The Inquirer featured their house in a photo spread about its French-inspired Gothic style of architecture. Professor Wolfgang said: “Perhaps that is one reason I feel so very much at home.”
After her husband died in 1998, she married Leon Salganicoff, a professor emeritus at Temple, in 2010. He died in 2011.
Professor Wolfgang was an avid reader. She traveled the world, listened to classical music, and enjoyed hosting dinner parties with friends and academic colleagues.
She almost went to law school in the 1970s before gaining her full time teaching position at Lehigh. She doted on her family, sent personalized birthday cards, and kept in touch with teachers, colleagues, former students, and friends even after they parted.
“She was brilliant,” a longtime friend said in a tribute, “and she was fun.” Her family said: “Everyone loved her.”
In addition to her daughters, Professor Wolfgang is survived by two grandsons, a great-grandson, and other relatives. A brother died earlier.
A private celebration of her life was held earlier.
Donations in her name may be made to the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, Box 72077, Philadelphia, Pa. 19176.
