[Tlc] TLC/VSG-letter of condolence for Roxanna Brown's family

[catharin dalpino]

Please add my name.

Thanks,
Catharin Dalpino


> [Original Message]
> From: <justinm at ucr.edu>
> To: <tlc at lists.ucr.edu>; <vsg at u.washington.edu>
> Date: 5/18/2008 2:42:32 AM
> Subject: [Tlc] TLC/VSG-letter of condolence for Roxanna Brown's family
>
> Dear All,
>
> Please see the letter of condolence for Dr. Roxanna Brown's family below
and attached with the list of supporters. I will be sending this letter to
her family on Monday morning. If you would like to be added to the list,
please do not hesitate to contact me.
>
> Sincerely,
> justin
>
> Dear Family, Friends, and Colleagues of Dr. Roxanna Brown,
>
> When a great and good person is taken from us, the shock calls upon us to
freeze the daily whirl of activities and face an irreparable loss in our
lives.
>
> Your sister, your mother, your daughter, Roxanna Maude Brown was such a
person.  She touched so many lives over the course of her own.  A growing
chorus of admiration and affection attests to the broad reach of her life
and work.
>
> Roxanna's journey took her from the role of journalist, the conscience of
a nation, 
> documenting from the ground the unfolding tragedy of Vietnam, to her
discovery of what 
> would be her life's work buried literally beneath her feet: the ceramics
of Southeast 
> Asia.  More than once her pursuit of ceramics study through the
countryside of Southeast Asia aroused the suspicion of the forces locked in
mortal combat swirling around her.  Amidst the horror of war, it must have
been hard for them to see the innocence of her search for kilns and shards.
>
> Roxanna became a leading figure in the study of Southeast Asian ceramics,
and the culture of which they were a part.  Her keen eye and vast empirical
knowledge allowed her to shape theories of historical development in
Southeast Asia that challenged accepted paradigms.  That she was able to
pursue her work and achieve what 
> she did without the force of institutional structure supporting her was
remarkable.  When 
> she ascended to the Directorship of the Southeast Asia Ceramics Museum,
she seemed at 
> last fitted with the platform from which to make manifest for the benefit
of the public her 
> lifetime of study.  The museum is a testament to her sensibility and the
rigor of her 
> scholarship.  We hope it remains true to her ideals.
>
> Many have spoken of her achievements as a scholar, her unique place in
her chosen field of study.  For those of us who were blessed to know her
personally, her friendship was equally to be cherished.  All of us have our
own stories of Roxanna, our testimonials as friends and colleagues.  Her
irrepressible, infectious enthusiasm for Southeast Asian ceramics spread a
charmed field of energy about all who came in contact with her.  She moved
with equal grace through mansions and the most modest of dwellings.  She
asked for little and shared much.  Her gentle generosity and unjudgemental
acceptance of difference and frailty in a field all too often marred by
intolerance and avarice made her a loved as well as respected figure.
>
> But, compounding this tragedy, this is not a moment of grief at the loss
of a loved one 
> slipping away from us after a full, rich life, surrounded by friends and
family, whose last 
> moments are made as safe and soft as material comforts can permit.  This
is a moment of 
> mischance.  This is a moment of horror.  This is a moment of grief not
only for the friend we have lost, but anguish for the suffering, the
unjust, unnecessary, suffering of her last days and nights on earth.  A
vulnerable, trusting, undemanding soul thrust alone into the 
> netherworld of the institutional at its most cold and brutal.  It is
unspeakable.
>
> Many of us have discussed how best to pursue the questions that arise
concerning the 
> circumstances of her most tragic and untimely death.  We wish to be
sensitive to your feelings and desires as we move forward.  We feel there
are many who need to answer for what has happened.  We do not seek to
return vengeance for victimization, but we seek illumination, and justice.
>
> It is not only the cruelty of Roxanna's incarceration we seek to redress,
but the slur 
> cast upon her name by the accusations that prompted her arrest.  For a
scholar of such 
> integrity, who tirelessly sought to raise the level of ethical practice
in the trade in 
> ceramics, it is a cruel irony that her reputation has been thus tainted. 
We cannot 
> bring back Roxanna, but we can try our best to clear her of any shadow of
wrongdoing, and restore her good name for the future.
>
> For all of us who knew her as a scholar and as a person, we will remember
her always as she was--dedicated, generous, gentle, warm.  Roxanna will be
greatly missed.
>
> In sorrow,
> Caverlee Cary
> Nhung Tuyet Tran
> Pattaratorn Chirapravati
> Hiram Woodward
> Craig Reynolds
> Melody Rodari
> Alicia Carlos
> Charles Keyes
> Joyce Clark
> Judith Henchy
> Susan Kepner
> Rebecca Hall
> Louise Cort
> Michele Thompson
> Robert Brown
> Emmy Bunker
> Shawn McHale
> Edward Miller
> Boreth Ly
> Bonnie Brereton
> Charles Wheeler
> Carol Stratton
> Charnvit Kasetsiri
> Leedom Lefferts
> BJ Terwiel
> Louis Gabaude
> Thak Chaloemtiarana
> Stanley O’Connor
> Barbara Gaerlan 
> Nguyen-Vo Thu-Huong
> Richard Page
> Eric Charles Thompson
> Anne R Hansen
> Philippe Peycam
> Charles Keith
> Christina Firpo
> Nicola Tannenbaum
> Larry Ashmun
> Nora Taylor
> William Lavely
> Donald Mccallum
> Nguyen Ngoc BICH
> Bin Wong
> Nick Menzies
> Michael Ross
> Philip Taylor
> Darryl Johnson
> Laurie Sears
> Paul Kratowska
> Quynh Kieu
> Chan Kieu
> Laichen Sun
> Richard A. Ruth
> Trude Bennett
> Christine McDaniel
> Justin McDaniel
> Cari Coe
> Jim Cobbe
> Scott Laderman
> John Stevenson
> Karen Adams
> Ben Kerkvliet
> David Rehfuss
> Hue-Tam Ho Tai
> Sarah Grant
> Geoff Wade
> Volker Grabowsky
> Kelly Meister
> Nathan McGovern
> Liam C Kelley
> Anthony Zola 
> Ronachai Krisadaolarn
> Vasudha Narayanan
> Julia White
> Vasilijs Mihailovs
> Susan Lee
> Nancy Tingley
> Tana Li
> Suteera Nittayananta
> Douglas Padgett
> Erik Davis
> John Amos Marston
> Haydon Cherry
> Matthew Wheeler
> Donald Swearer
> Sommai Premchit
> Ngô Thanh Nhà n
> Robert & Carol Retka
> Robert Acker
> Melissa Pashigian
> Bonnie Baskin
> Philip Alperson
> Tran Phuong Ky
> Dao Hung
> Nancy Wiener
> John Guy
> Ron Otsuka
> Doris Wiener
> Joseph Gerena
> Kathleen Gillogly
> David Lovell
> Todd Perreira
> Deborah Wong
> Rene Lysloff
> Hendrick Maier
> David Biggs
> Christina Schwenkel
> Lan Duong
> Tamara Ho
> Muhammad Ali
> Mariam Lam
> Sally Ann Ness
> Cecily Cook
> Deborah Tooker
> Catherine Raymond
> Bokyung Kim 
> Dawn Rooney
> Nha Trang Pensinger
> William L. Pensinger
> John N. Miksic
> Goh Geok Yian 
> and many many others 
>
>
> ______________
> Dr. Justin McDaniel
> Dept. of Religious Studies
> 3046 INTN
> University of California, Riverside
> Riverside, CA 92521
> 951-827-4530
> justinm at ucr.edu