Printing professor emeritus honored

‌

Adam DeTour ’06

Frank Romano receives an award of appreciation at the Isaiah Thomas Award in Publishing ceremony.

Frank Romano has dedicated his life to the printing industry in various roles: professor, consultant, advocate and author.

RIT—where Romano has taught for 22 years and still teaches online courses—honored the world-renowned printing expert with a surprise award of appreciation during this year’s Isaiah Thomas Award in Publishing ceremony. Chris Bondy, administrative chair of RIT’s School of Media Sciences, presented Romano with a framed certificate at the event Sept. 20 in Worcester, Mass.

“The most important thing is that I’ve had the opportunity to teach students and work at RIT,” Romano says. “For me, the real award is watching my students graduate and go on to work in the industry and help to build a better industry.”

Throughout his career, Romano has worked for industry suppliers and has written more than 50 books and hundreds of articles. He is recognized as a leading authority on graphic arts technology and trends. His impact on students is clear.

“The day I heard Frank talk about printing, or better yet, the future of printing, something sparked in my brain,” says Gisela Delgado ’02 (print media). “Here was this guy talking about ‘e-books’ like he was from the future. Imagine this was 14 years ago when he was talking about this technology, before the first iPod.”

The Isaiah Thomas Award was given to the American Antiquarian Society, a national research library founded by Thomas.