* Elliot L. Gilbert; Chairman of UC Davis English Department

Elliot L. Gilbert, 60, chairman of the English department at UC Davis. Gilbert graduated cum laude from New York University, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and earned a master’s degree in English. He earned a doctorate at Cornell University. He taught at Columbia University and Brooklyn College before coming to Davis in 1966. His major area of research was Victorian literature, in particular the works of Charles Dickens and Rudyard Kipling, and detective fiction. A foremost expert on Kipling, Gilbert’s major works included “The Good Kipling” and “ ‘O Beloved Kids’: Rudyard Kipling’s Letters to His Children.” On Monday in Sacramento of heart failure.