A Message from President Hallick

Dear Faculty, Staff & Students,

I am deeply saddened to let you know that Lorelle Browning, professor of English, passed away last night at her home in Manning, following a brief, unexpected illness.

Lorelle had been a faculty member at Pacific since 1990. She was the recipient of two U.S. Scholar Fulbright grants. She had planned to write a book illustrated with never-before-seen archival photos about actors who performed war propaganda plays in the Vietnamese jungle during the French and U.S. wars there.

Lorelle had previously taught at Vietnamese colleges and universities in Hue, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City and co-produced several collaborative productions featuring Vietnamese and American actors performing together in Vietnam and the United States.

The award-winning documentary film, A Dream in Hanoi, chronicles Lorelle’s theatre collaborations and has aired numerous times on PBS and LINK television.

Lorelle also worked with Portland’s Artists Repertory Theatre on bilingual Vietnamese-American productions of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Tennessee Williams’ Glass Menagerie. In 2011, Lorelle co-directed a Vietnamese production of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, sponsored by the U.S. Embassy.

She was the founder of Vietnam-America Theatre Exchange, a project which first brought Vietnamese actors to perform at Pacific University and other West Coast universities in 1998. She was recognized as the most renowned non-native expert on Vietnamese theatre and was frequently invited to international conferences to delivery plenary presentations on the history and future of Vietnamese spoken drama.

Lorelle earned her bachelor’s, master’s and PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She enjoyed aerobics, cooking for students and friends, and gardening at her home, as well as traveling and playing with her dogs. She and her partner, Marvin Simmons, were dedicated to service to the people of Vietnam and to veterans of the conflict in Vietnam. They had adopted two foster families in Vietnam and hoped to bring the families’ children, their “grandchildren,” to the U.S. to be educated.

Our thoughts and memories are with Lorelle’s loved ones.

Her family has asked for privacy at this time. Inquiries may be directed to Dr. Alyson Burns-Glover. No memorial service information is available at this time.

Lesley M. Hallick, PhD
President