Roxanna Brown, art historian, 1946 - 2008.

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 Nhàn
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