Coakley, James F.

James Francis Coakley was born on December 12, 1933, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He earned his BFA at the Carnegie Mellon Institute of Technology in 1955. From 1956 to 1958, he served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps working as a cryptographer. In 1959, he earned his MA from the University of Minnesota, and soon after earned his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 1964. During his years as a student, he earned a Mellon Scholarship while attending the Carnegie Mellon Institute of Technology, a graduate scholarship from Northwestern University, and a Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Year Fellowship.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Coakley was involved in many local theaters (in Northport, NY, Pittsburgh, PA, and at the University of Minnesota), serving either as director or stage manager.

Coakley first taught at Loyola University, then the University of Michigan, and concluded his teaching career at Northwestern University. He also taught for a short time at Roosevelt University, and served as a visiting professor at the Art Institute of Chicago.

While at the University of Michigan, Coakley taught classes on the technical aspects of theatre, and was in charge of the stage design or directorship for major productions of the Speech Department, such as The Homecoming, Lysistrata, Much Ado About Nothing, and After the Fall . Some of his research topics included Shakespeare promptbooks and Shaw-Craig literary and theatrical relations.

Coakley was a member of many theatre-related organizations, including the American Educational Theatre Association, the Speech Association of America, the American National Theatre and Academy, and the Shaw Society.

From the guide to the James F. Coakley papers, 1966-1971, (Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan)