Dr. Michael Aceto (1962-2021)

Dr. Michael Aceto, 59, passed away unexpectedly Wednesday, July 21, 2021. A memorial service was held Monday, August 2, at 10 am at the ECU Student Center (Room 249).

Aceto is survived by his wife, Maura Aceto, who has been with him for 25 years, and his daughter, Sofia. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Parents for Public Schools of Pitt County, PO Box 2873, Greenville, NC 27836 or online at ppspittcounty.org/donate.

Aceto taught for a number of years at the University of Puerto Rico, Old Dominion University, and has been a professor in the English Department at East Carolina University since 2000. He was very environmentally conscious and loved music, jazz, and playing his guitar. His greatest joy was spending time with his daughter, who he absolutely adored.

His primary research areas are sociolinguistics, diachronic linguistics, creole languages, and Englishes around the world. His published work has mostly made use of primary data gathered in the field in Panama, Barbuda, St. Eustatius, and Dominica. His articles have appeared in Language in Society, English World-Wide, American Speech, Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, and in several volumes of collected articles. His book project Contact Englishes of the Eastern Caribbean was published by John Benjamins in the Varieties of English around the World series.