Estimados colegas: Recibí la triste noticia
de abajo de parte del estimado colega Edward Friedman el 30 de
agosto. Sólo hoy, después de dos semanas fuera del país, he podido
leerla y ahora mandarla a los colegas. Mi trato con la amable
colega Charlotte Stern fue sólo por correo electrónico. Aun así
pude apreciar su profesionalismo y benevolente cortesía, cualidades que
Ed menciona en su apreciada nota. ARL
From: Edward
Friedman <[log in to unmask]>
To: "Lauer, A Robert" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 18:16:30 -0500
Subject: Charlotte Stern
Dear Robert,
One of my Vanderbilt
colleagues, who serves on the board of trustees at Randolph College,
formerly Randolph-Macon Woman's College, in Lynchburg, VA, informed me
that our respected colleague and dear friend Charlotte Stern passed away
earlier this week. I have pasted below the obituary that appeared today
in the Lynchburg paper. Not only was Charlotte a superb scholar and
teacher, but she was a generous mentor to younger scholars in the field.
I remember the kindness that she and her husband Carl showed me when I
attended my first Comediantes banquet over thirty years ago. Her work and
her good deeds will certainly live on. I feel honored to have known
her.
Prof. Carl Stern’s mailing
address in Maine is
P.O. Box 323
Oquossoc, ME 04964
Thanks, and best,
Ed
Edward Friedman
CHARLOTTE DANIELS STERN
Charlotte Stern, a professor of Spanish at Randolph College for nearly
three decades, died Sunday, Aug. 24, 2008, at a Hospice facility in
Auburn, Maine.
She was 78 and had been suffering from advanced-stage abdominal
cancer.
Stern was an authority on medieval Spanish theater and the author of
numerous articles on the subject in professional journals. Her book,
"The Medieval Theater in Castile," was published in 1996, and
she was a major contributor to "A Companion to the Medieval
Theatre," an encyclopedic volume published in 1989.
She was a longtime member of the First Unitarian Church of Lynchburg.
For the past 50 years, she spent her summers at Mooselookmeguntic Lake,
near Oquossoc, Maine, with her family.
Charlotte Carolyn Daniels was born Dec. 22, 1929, in Philadelphia, Pa.,
the daughter of Charles and Julia (Bridenbach) Daniels. She attended
public schools in the Olney section of Philadelphia and graduated first
in her class at Temple University in 1951. She went on to earn her
master's degree and doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania.
She married Carl Stern, an economics professor at Randolph-Macon, in
1952, and the couple celebrated their 55th anniversary last October. The
Sterns had met as graduate students at the University of
Pennsylvania.
Mrs. Stern first taught at Randolph-Macon in 1961 and received a
permanent faculty appointment in 1968. She also taught at Lynchburg
College from 1954 to 1968. In 1980, she was named the Charles A. Dana
professor of romance languages at Randolph-Macon, where she gained a
reputation for generously giving her time and encouragement to students
and colleagues.
In 1990, she received the college's Katherine Graves Davidson Award,
given annually to an outstanding faculty member. She and her husband
retired from Randolph-Macon in 1992.
Stern's prolific scholarship included dozens of journal articles, book
reviews and papers presented to the Modern Language Association and other
professional organizations and conferences. She was the book review
editor for the Bulletin of the Comediantes and served on the editorial
boards of the Journal of Hispanic Philology and Ulula: Graduate Studies
in Romance Languages.
She was a member of the Modern Language Association of America, the
Renaissance Society of America, the Medieval Academy of America, the
Comediantes, the Cervantes Society of America, the American Society for
Theatre Research, the Society of the Cantigueiros de Santa Maria and the
Association for Hispanic Classical Theater.
In 1982, she was elected an alumna member of Phi Beta Kappa at Temple
University.
Stern was a lifelong advocate of human rights. She was a supporter of
civil rights from the time she arrived in the South in the 1950s, and she
actively opposed a 2006 referendum that amended the Virginia constitution
to ban gay marriage.
After her retirement, Stern became especially active in the local
Unitarian congregation, helping to establish a church library that opened
in 2003. The collection, which now includes more than 1,500 volumes,
emphasizes religious and social issues. A substantial number of the books
were donated by Stern herself.
She also was active in the church's Social Justice Committee, which among
many other activities erected a peace pole in front of the church's
fellowship hall. She wrote the scripts for several plays that were staged
as Sunday services at the church, including one that focused on women in
the early history of the Unitarian Church.
Stern was an accomplished knitter, chef, seamstress and painter and a
devoted fan of the Boston Red Sox and the Duke University basketball
team.
She is survived by her husband, Carl; son, Chris of Orange, Calif.;
daughter, Jenny and son-in-law, Fred Daley; and grandson, Isaac Daley,
all of Granville, N.Y.
A memorial service is planned for later this year, at a time and place to
be announced.
In lieu of flowers, donations in Stern's memory may be made to the First
Unitarian Church of Lynchburg or to the charitable organization of one's
choice.
Arrangements are under the care of Funeral Alternatives Group, 25 Tampa
St. Lewiston, ME 04240.