Randi Davenport

Randi Davenport, author of the award-winning The Boy Who Loved Tornadoes: A Mother's Story (Algonquin Books, 2010) and The End of Always: A Novel (Hachette Books, 2014) died on April 6, 2025 after a long illness. Davenport graduated from Clarkstown South High School in 1974 and William Smith college in 1978. As a Creative Writing Fellow, she earned an M.A in Creative Writing at Syracuse University in 1989 and a PhD in Literature as a University Fellow--the university's most highly regarded fellowship-- in 1992. She won the university's award for doctoral level research that same year, as well as several research grants at the British Library in London and the Bodlein in Oxford.

In addition to teaching 19th-century British literature, Randi Davenport taught creative writing, rhetoric, feminist theory and film. She taught First Year Honors Seminars for the Department of English and Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she also served as Executive Director of the James M. Johnston Center For Undergradute Excellence and directed the Frank Porter Graham Lecture series. In addition to UNC, she taught at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, among other colleges.

She is survived by her son, Chase. Davenport-Klas, her daughter, Haley Davenport-Klas, two sisters, Trudi Reinhard and Traci Davenport, her mother, Carolyn Davenport, and her nephew, Alex Reinhard. Randi was admired and loved by a large circle of friends and will be sorely missed.