Nick Salvatore, a professor emeritus in the ILR School, an award-winning historian and teacher and lifelong champion for working people, died on Nov. 29 in Ithaca. He was 82.

Credit: Cornell University File Photo

Salvatore taught at the ILR School and in the American Studies Program in the College of Arts and Sciences for 36 years, retiring in 2017 as the Maurice and Hinda Neufeld Founders Emeritus Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations. The author of three books, including “Eugene V. Debs: Citizen and Socialist” (1982), which received both the Bancroft Prize and the John H. Dunning Prize.

Two other books followed, “We All Got History: The Memory Books of Amos Webber” (1996), which received the New England History Association's Outstanding Book Prize, and “Singing in a Strange Land: C. L. Franklin, the Black Church, and the Transformation of America” (2005), which examines the life of one of the most influential preachers of his generation.

“A wonderful colleague and friend, husband, father and grandfather, a hugger and a laugher, Nick was passionate about so many things: American history and politics; justice for working people; teaching and mentoring undergraduates; Cornell University; classical music, jazz and gospel, and a well-cooked Italian meal,” said Glenn Altschuler, Ph.D. ’76, the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies Emeritus (A&S).”

In a 2005 interview, Salvatore said, “the glue that holds all three of these subjects together is the alternative perspective they share on the meaning of being an American … These are issues and people I find intriguing – people who revere the part of the Declaration of Independence that reads, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, and endowed by their creator with unalienable rights,’ and who question the way those values are applied in modern society.”

In 2008, Salvatore collaborated with Jefferson Cowie, who was a faculty member in the ILR School before moving to Vanderbilt University in 2016, on “The Long Exception: Rethinking the Place of the New Deal in American History. International Labor and Working-Class History.”

“Nick was one of our foremost historians,” said Cowie, who dedicated his book, “The Great Exception: The New Deal and the Limits of American Politics,” to Salvatore, and who won the Pulitzer Prize in history in 2023. “With his tenacious research and vivid prose, he captured the great themes in American history through the lives of people both famous and obscure. He will be remembered for his big heart, subversive laugh and serious mind.” 

An author of more than 30 articles and nearly 50 reviews, Salvatore also gave numerous talks, particularly on the subject of Debs. In 2020, he appeared on NPR’s Throughline episode, “American Socialist,” which explored the life of Debs and the trajectory of socialism in the early 20th century, illustrating how this history shapes the present day.

Nicholas Salvatore was born on Nov. 14, 1943, in Brooklyn. He attended St. Savior and Brooklyn Prep High School, then entered a Jesuit novitiate, Saint Andrew-On-Hudson, in Hyde Park, New York.

After a year in the seminary, Salvatore returned to Brooklyn and spent a year at Fordham University before leaving to work as a trucker’s helper for the Railway Express Agency, becoming a member of Local 808 of the Teamsters Union. At that time, he was also active in the civil rights and antiwar movements.

Salvatore completed his undergraduate degree at Hunter College in the Bronx (now Lehman College) in 1968 before obtaining a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in American history from the University of California, Berkeley. 

In 1976, Salvatore joined the faculty at the College of the Holy Cross, first as an instructor, then an assistant professor. He came to the ILR School in 1981 during its “second wave” of faculty hiring and was named a professor of American history in A&S in 1997. He also was a visiting lecturer at universities in Turin and Paris, and spent a year at the Yale Divinity School while working on the Franklin biography.

In 2007, Salvatore was awarded the ILR School’s MacIntyre Award for Exemplary Teaching.

“Nick spent a lot of time focused on his teaching, and he had very high standards for his students,” said Ileen DeVault, professor of labor history and Salvatore’s colleague for more than 30 years. “Students felt that he really pushed them to become their best academic selves.”

Salvatore is survived by his wife of 51 years, Ann Sullivan ’69; their daughters, Gabriella Salvatore ’93 and Nora Salvatore ’01, J.D. ’06; grandsons Joseph Bullock and Oscar Jenes; brother Michael Salvatore; and numerous nieces, nephews, grand-nieces and grand nephews.

“Nick was our family’s patriarch; we will miss him dearly,” said his cousin Paul Salvatore ’81, J.D. ’84, trustee emeritus and fellow at Weill Cornell Medicine. “Nick deeply loved ILR and Cornell – a feeling we mutually shared, rooted in our admiration of Cornell’s commitment to create and provide opportunity.” 

A memorial celebration of his life will be held in spring 2026. Contributions to honor Salvatore’s legacy through the Nick Salvatore scholarship can be made here.

Julie Greco is the communications director for the School of Industrial and Labor Relations.