[Tlc] Roxanna Brown letter of condolence

Sun May 18 14:01:10 PDT 2008

Justin, Please add my name Benny Widyono to the list. 

In a message dated 5/17/2008 2:38:07 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
zolaa at mozart.inet.co.th writes:

Dear  Justin,

Thank you for including me.

Yes, please add my name to  the letter. I only met 
her a few times, but she was indeed an  inspirational person.

Best regards, Tony Zola
Anthony M.  Zola
Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Resources Development  Specialist

Office:
124/170 Moo 1, Piyawararom Village,  Bungyeetho
Phraongchaosai Road (Khlong 4)
Thanyaburi, Pathum Thani  12130, Thailand

tel. (+66) (0) 2152-2348;  fax: (+66) (0)  2152-2350
Thai cell phone: (+66 8) (0) 9206-9377; Lao cell phone: (+856-20)  551-1369
email addresses: zolaa at inet.co.th and  zolaam at gmail.com

Postal address:
P.O. Box 42, Thanyaburi
Pathum  Thani 12110, Thailand

At 01:54 PM 5/17/2008, justinm at ucr.edu  wrote:
>Dear All,
>
>Please see the letter of condolence for  Roxanna 
>Brown's family attached and below. If you 
>haven't  signed your name to it and still would 
>like to, please do not hesitate  to contact me.
>
>Thank you,
>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
>H. Leedom Lefferts
>BJ Terwiel
>Louis  Gabaude
>Thak Chaloemtiarana
>Stanley Oâ€™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
>Justin McDaniel
>Cari Coe
>Jim Cobbe
>Scott  Laderman
>John Stevenson
>Karen Adams
>Ben  Kerkvliet
>David Rehfuss
>Hue-Tam Ho Tai
>Sarah Grant 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
>
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