Born: 01/12/1942
Hanover, New Hampshire
Died: 07/29/2026
New Port Richey, Florida
Details of service:
A memorial service is planned for a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to Vermont Public, in support of its work with Vermont Public Radio.
Kenneth Nalibow, retired Associate Professor of Russian at the University of Vermont, died at the age of 84.
Ken was the son of Helen (Diamant) Nalibow and Joseph Nalibow of Woodstock, Vermont. From an early age, he was obsessed with his Lionel train set.
He grew up with juvenile diabetes at a time when treatment for the disease was scarce, and with an eye impairment that kept him from obtaining a driver’s license until he was 40 — obstacles he met with characteristic determination rather than complaint.
As a young man, he worked at the family business, the still-standing Woodstock Pharmacy, owned by his father.
Ken earned his B.A. from the University of Vermont in 1964 and went on to complete his Ph.D. in Balto-Slavic Philology at the University of Pennsylvania. He returned to UVM in 1970 and spent the next thirty-nine years there, becoming the longest-serving member of the Department of German and Russian before his retirement in 2009.
A gifted linguist known for his flawless Russian pronunciation, Ken devoted his career to language pedagogy, presenting widely at national and regional meetings of the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages. He served as Director of UVM’s Russian and East European Studies Program from 1981 to 1992 and again from 1995 until his retirement, and from 1980 to 1988 he served as book review editor of the Slavic and East European Journal. He was twice nominated for UVM’s Kroepsch-Maurice Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Ken was an early champion of technology in the language classroom, serving as interim director of the UVM Language Resource Center from 1997 to 1998, and he turned his enthusiasm for contemporary Russian cinema into one of the department’s most popular courses. Colleagues remembered him as the department’s institutional memory — a generous storyteller and mentor to younger faculty who never lost his enthusiasm for teaching.
Outside the classroom, Ken was an avid cyclist and a skier at an expert level for decades, holding a rare lifetime pass to Killington Resort, where he was a familiar and formidable presence on the mountain. He was also a lover of classical music and an accomplished pianist.
Ken is survived by his longtime companion, Michael Walston; his sister, Susan Ruxin of Ridgefield, Connecticut; his nephew, Josh Ruxin of Kigali, Rwanda; and his niece, Lisa Phillips of Wellesley, Massachusetts. He was predeceased by his parents, Helen (Diamant) and Joseph Nalibow of Woodstock, Vermont.
