From 1942 to 1946, he served in the United States Navy where he acted as a Japanese interpreter.

In 1965, he was appointed Professor of Italian and Dean of College of Letters and Sciences on the Riverside campus.

In 1973, he left California to become Chancellor and Commonwealth Professor of Italian at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where he remained until his retirement in 1978.

One of his main goals was to make Italian culture more readily available to college students and the American public.

His numerous lectures on and reviews of contemporary works being published in Italy and still unknown in the United States speak clearly to this.