Parting Thoughts: Remembering prolific writer, historian Joe Amato

Prolific writer and Minnesota historian Joe Amato died recently at the age of 86.

The Renaissance man churned out more than 30 books on immigration, rural history, regional history and more. He spent decades as a history professor at Southwest Minnesota State University.

Jan Louwagie knew Amato for 45 years and was his colleague at the Southwest Regional Research Center.

“Besides being an intellectual and producing so many works, he also was very concerned about the people around him. He would always ask, how’s your family doing?” Louwagie said.

Amato was born in Detroit in 1938 and is of Italian descent. He eventually made his way to Marshall, Minn., where his SWMU curricula endured for years.

“He also became interested in where he had moved to, into the local and regional history of our area, and so he, within the university, helped develop what’s called the rural studies program, which was very unique at that time,” Louwagie recalled.

Amato’s focus on the history of rural America — and rural Minnesota — garnered local and national acclaim.

“I think he had a feeling of, ‘we need to know our place. We need to know our home,’” Louwagie said. Upon his move, “I think he felt, I’m going to say responsibility, to try to figure out what his place was like, or what his home was like, and to try to research and write about that.”

Amato died on Jan. 24. His funeral was on Saturday.

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