Virginia Grace Tenzer

Virginia Grace (Copes) Tenzer passed away at home New Haven, CT, on February 6, 2023. She was 92 years old. The cause of death was cancer. She was a gifted and talented woman who engaged in theater, the arts, and scholarship. She was an attractive, congenial person whose vibrant red hair was her signature.

Born in Watertown, CT, she was the eleventh of the twelve children of her immigrant parents, Joseph and Elda (Simoncini) Copes. She graduated from Watertown High School, where she had roles in many student productions, and went on to perform in community theater in the Waterbury area. At the University of Connecticut, she had roles in plays by Moliere, Shakespeare, Maugham and Saroyan. After her marriage to Morton Tenzer in 1953, she lived in New Haven and studied painting and drawing at the Yale School of Art with the renowned artist Joseph Albers. She continued her pursuit of art, especially printmaking, at Wesleyan, after the couple moved to Middletown in 1956; she also extended her studies to Art History and earned a Master’s degree. But she devoted herself primarily to the Wesleyan Theater, where she had lead roles in numerous stage productions.

In 1963, she and Mort moved to New York with their first child and welcomed their second in 1965; in addition to caring for the household, she studied acting at the Berghof Studio and took advantage of the city’s many museums. When the family moved to Storrs in 1968, she soon began teaching Art History at the University of Connecticut. Students rated her the top teacher in the Art Department, and members of the community and even some of her faculty colleagues attended her lectures. She decided to deepen her studies at Brown University, where she earned a Ph.D., specializing in the art of the Italian renaissance. While teaching, she also helped curate exhibits at UConn’s Benton Art Museum.

Virginia loved to travel and frequently visited London, Paris, and Italy, where she carried out research in the town of Urbino—her dissertation was on the Ducal Palace’s “studiolo.” Her engaging personality won her friends everywhere she visited, including Europe, and especially in Provincetown, MA, where she spent many of her summers, beginning in 1952. Throughout her adventures, she w remained closely bonded with her siblings and wrote a “Family Chronicle,” documenting the story of their parents’ Italian origins and hard work to establish a new life in America.

After retirement, she returned to New Haven with Mort, and devoted herself to volunteer work at the St. Thomas More soup kitchen and Yale New Haven Hospital. She remained interested e in art, politics, women’s causes, and environmental preservation.

She was predeceased by ten of her siblings and is survived by her sister Louise (Copes) Welsh of Palmyra, NJ; and more than twenty nieces and nephews, with whom she kept in loving contact. Her bereaved husband and her children, Livia Tenzer and Jason Tenzer of New York City, are grateful for the condolences from family and friends. She leaves one grandchild, Julia, Livia’s daughter. Observations will be private. Donations may be made to the American Cancer Society.