University to Remember Brown

42 years of service made Brown a founder at Mason.

by Staff

University to Remember Brown

On May 5, 2010, George Mason University will remember Lorraine Brown, professor emeritus of English who passed away in February after 42 years of service to the university.

The memorial will take place in the Performing Arts Building on the Fairfax Campus from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Brown, who retired from Mason in February 2009, was a founder of Mason’s program in women’s studies, which is now known as Women and Gender Studies.  Not only was Brown a valuable member of the English department, she was a long-time member of the Faculty Senate and a past president of the George Mason Chapter of the American Association of University Professors.

Also of great significance is Brown's work related to the Federal Theatre Project.  More than 35 years ago, she and a colleague, John O'Connor, discovered the Federal Theatre Project Collection in a Library of Congress storage depot and arranged for the collection to come to Mason on temporary loan. The archival materials included original posters, scripts, and set and costume designs for nearly 600 Federal Theatre Project productions.  The materials were placed in the care of Mason's Research Center for the Federal Theatre Project, which was headed by Brown.  Her work to archive and preserve the materials was remarkable.  As the project grew, Brown helped facilitate over 300 oral histories from those involved in the Federal Theatre Project, including actors, writers, directors, designers, and administrators.  Fenwick Library still hosts many of these pieces.  Brown and O'Connor were also the authors of a book about this material The Federal Theatre Project: Free, Adult, Uncensored.   

“As one of the true founders of George Mason University, Lorraine Brown dedicated her career to the well-being of students and to the creation of the university as a wellspring of knowledge and research,” Dean Jack Censer said. “Among her many contributions was the development of the archive of the Federal Theater Project, which has furthered much scholarship and inspired the recovery and re-staging of many plays at George Mason and elsewhere.”

She received BA and MA degrees from the University of Michigan, and a PhD from the University of Maryland.

“Lorraine Brown had a passionate voice: for the theater that she loved, for her students, for the English department and for the university,” English chair Robert Matz said. “As one of the longest serving members of the English faculty, she was a warm friend and mentor to many of us in the department, including me.”