The Swellesley Report

Cynthia Joan Wight Rossano (also known since birth as Muffet), of Wellesley, Massachusetts, died March 21, 2026. Beloved wife of Kenneth R. Rossano for sixty-six years. Loving mother of Graham Wight Rossano, Brian Amsler Rossano, and Mary Penelope King Rossano. Devoted grandmother – ‘Greeny’ – of Colin Joseph, Virginia Avery, James William, Carter John, Peter Kenneth, and Louisa Lucile King. She adored her family and cherished time spent with them. Daughter of the late George Earle Wight, M.D., and Lucile King Wight, R.N., of Montreal, Quebec, and sister of the late George Earle Wight, Jr., of Toronto, Ontario. Also survived by many dearly-loved Canadian and American family members, and godchildren Cynthia Rolph Ballantyne, Susan Keating MacDonald, and Bruce John MacCormac; and grand-goddaughter Elizabeth Mary Moulton.

Cynthia grew up in Montreal, attended Miss Edgar’s and Miss Cramp’s School, and graduated from Havergal College, Toronto. In addition, she attended McGill University, the McGill Conservatory of Music, the New England Conservatory of Music, the Radcliffe Seminars, and Radcliffe Publishing Procedures, from which she graduated in 1973. After marrying in 1960, she and her husband moved to the Boston area and raised their family in Wellesley. A writer and editor with ink in her veins from birth, Cynthia wrote and edited many books aside from those at Harvard, including, in 1982, Volume I, Seventh Edition, of The American Pageant: A History of the Republic, by David M. Kennedy, Professor of History, Emeritus, of Stanford University, and she wrote for diverse publications including newspapers in Montreal and Boston; Parents Magazine; Harvard Magazine, and sundry house organs. She also happily taught piano to young students.

Loyal to and happy at Harvard University for close to forty years, her contributions there include, beginning in 1987, establishing a new tradition of the ringing of all Harvard and Cambridge bells on Commencement Day. She annually wrote ‘These Festival Rites’ and edited the Order of Exercises for Commencement; co-edited in 1992 ‘Foundations for a Learned Ministry,’ the 175 th anniversary catalogue for the Harvard Divinity School’s exhibition in Widener Library, and she fielded the exhibition ‘Thomas Hollis, Merchant, of London,’ in Houghton Library. In 2007, in honor of the four hundredth anniversary of John Harvard’s baptism in Southwark Cathedral, London, and the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Memorial Church building, she wrote the catalogue for and fielded an exhibition in Pusey Library, which she entitled, ‘Heralds of Light: John Harvard and The Memorial Church, 1607.1932.2007.’ In 1998, she documented the special ceremony in which President Nelson R. Mandela was awarded an Honorary Degree, and in 2003, she edited and published the Third Edition of ‘Prayers for Private Devotions in War-Time,’ first published in 1942 by The Reverend Dean Willard L. Sperry.

Cynthia worked with her dear friend, the late author/editor/poet David Thompson Watson McCord – for forty years head of the Harvard College Fund – on his papers; and she edited Love to All and Four Hands Around, a book published in 2007 by the late Daniel Pierce, ’56, of his great-grandfather, Charles William Eliot, president of Harvard, 1869-1909. She edited Environmental Studies and Research at Harvard University in 1993; and served for more than thirty years as sole editor to the late Reverend Professor Peter J. Gomes, editing and publishing innumerable papers and addresses, and all fourteen volumes of his sermons plus six New York Times best-selling books, including The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart, and The Good Life: Truths That Last in Times of Need. Further books are listed elsewhere. She also assisted in Professor Gomes’ classes at Harvard: ‘Religion 42: The Christian Bible and Its Interpretation,’ and ‘Religion 1513: A History of Harvard and Its Presidents.’ After Professor Gomes’ untimely death in 2011, Cynthia edited and published Never Give Up! and Other Sermons Preached at Harvard, 2008-2010; and in 2012 she wrote and published Durable Values: Selected Writings of Peter J. Gomes. In 2014, she wrote and published When I Go To Harvard, and since then she has written many books and essays of her own.

Ever an optimist, Cynthia deeply loved and cherished her family, cheering them on in their chosen endeavors, immensely proud of each. She loved her friends, her colleagues, the family’s adored Siberian kittycats Anastasia and Ekaterina, beautiful and interesting poetry and literature, all music – especially choral, harp, piano, and organ – national and international travel, the Maine coast, her home in Wellesley, her beloved Laurentians and native province of Quebec, and its best-in-the-world maple syrup.

She was steeped in Harvard history, loved sharing it with students and scholars, and willingly responded to abundant editorial requests. In her honor, in 2009 the late Daniel Pierce, ’56, established ‘The Cynthia Wight Rossano Prize in Harvard History’ at Harvard, to be awarded annually and in perpetuity to an undergraduate student; and in 2012, the acclaimed American composer and organist Carson P. Cooman dedicated to her his new musical arrangement of Samuel Gilman’s ‘Fair Harvard,’ entitled “Fantasia on ‘Fair Harvard.’”

In 1997, Cynthia and Ken established ‘The Gomes Lecture’ in Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge, UK, John Harvard’s alma mater, in honor of the Reverend Professor Peter J. Gomes, to be given annually and in perpetuity. They also made a gift of the main reading room to the Wellesley Free Library; were long-time members of the Harvard Club of Boston, where they served on many committees, and they were dedicated congregants of the Memorial Church, Harvard University. A memorial service will be held on May 1, 2026, at 2PM in the Memorial Church. In lieu of flowers, contributions in her memory may be made to the Memorial Church or to a charity of your choice, for which the family gratefully thanks you. Burial is in Woodlawn Cemetery, Wellesley, Massachusetts.