Published in the (Charlottesville) Daily Progress on September 24, 2010
Mario Taboada, 53, died Sunday, September 12, 2010, at his home in Charlottesville, Virginia, of a heart attack.
Mario was born in Montevideo, Uruguay. He received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Minnesota in 1989, was a Post Doctoral Fellow at Cornell University, and a professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He moved with his family to Charlottesville in 1997 and ran Orbis Language, a translation company.
For the last year and change, Mario and I have been co-moderating the Rara Avis discussion list, a YahooGroup these days for the discussion of hardboiled and noirish crime fiction and related matters. We'd been among a small group who'd been quizzed by founder and long-term moderator Bill Denton if we'd take it over, as he had other matters demanding his attention. We two felt we could, and did so, with Mario continuing to be a lively presence on the list, a passionate man who loved to turn a joke at any reasonable and a few unreasonable opportunities, and with a deep love of the literature. I was more likely to take care of the behind the scenes matters of running the list, particularly as my life had been hectic, to say the least...while still keeping a hand in on the list discussion.
And then in September, not for the first time but certainly for the first time for so long and without explanation, Mario wasn't replying to email nor participating in the list discussion...I assumed he was tied up with other matters. Turns out I was incorrect. A member of RA who was also a member of a classical music list with Mario passed along the obituary information to our list today.
53. Much too young.
