Obituary: Vincent C. Brann, professor emeritus of Theater

Vincent C. Brann, 80, professor emeritus of Theater, died Oct. 26, at the Calvin Coolidge Rehabilitation Center in Northampton.

Born in Knoxville, Iowa, he spent most of his youth in Davenport, Iowa, and graduated from high school in Baltimore, Md., where his father was then stationed with the U.S. Army Medical Corps.

Brann served in the U.S. Army during World War II. After completing his B.A. at the University of Iowa in 1950, he was again called up to serve in the Army during the Korean Conflict from 1950-51. He completed his M.A. at Columbia University in 1953. Brann taught at Carnegie Institute of Technology from 1953-55, the University of Maryland Overseas Program Europe from 1958-59, and at Smith College from 1955-58 and 1959-64.

In 1964, Brann joined the faculty of the Speech Department, and in 1972 he transferred to the Department of Theater, where he taught until his retirement in 1988. He was noted for his oral interpretation and performance classes and his readers and chamber theater productions. His productions included “Little Mary Sunshine,” “The Mother of Us All,” and plays by Edward Albee. He also developed scripts for chamber theater from primary sources that included “84 Charing Cross Road,” based on the letters to and from Helen Hanff, and “Before My Time,” adapted from the novel by Maureen Howard.

At the University of Iowa in the late 1940s, Brann was a staff announcer and director of music programming on WSUI/KUSI-FM. In 1961, Brann was the first program coordinator and announcer on WFCR-FM, and held various positions with the radio station until 1970. He hosted reading aloud programs, the Mohawk Trail Concert series, and “Sights and Sounds: A Magazine of the Arts.”

He also served as an assistant and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Information and Advising Center (CASIAC) from 1980 until his retirement.

After living in Leverett for many years, he moved in 1989 to the Lathrop Community in Northampton, where he resided at the time of his death. He was interred in the Massachusetts Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery in Agawam.

He leaves a brother-in-law and a cousin both living in California and his close friend, Stanley R. Tripp of Northampton.

Contributions in his memory may be made to Cancer Connection, P.O. Box 60452, Northampton 01062.

October 31, 2007.