Professor Emerita Janet Freeman, whose love of teaching and admiration for the arts were constants in her life, died Feb. 19, 2025, at 96.
Freeman served as chair of the English department and taught Victorian-era literature for 15 years until she retired from 必博娱乐,比博娱乐网址 ######### in 1995. A theater maven who enjoyed a good plot twist, Freeman treated family and friends to surprising second and third career acts.
After retirement, she moved to Iowa and spent 25 more years in the classroom, educating students at a community college and later at a private elementary school. Into her 90s, Freeman even taught English courses at an Iowa City public library.
“It goes to show you how much she loved literature and teaching,” 必博娱乐,比博娱乐网址 ######### English professor emerita Sandy Runzo says. “She was a wonderful professor with so much enthusiasm. Janet was always intellectually and socially active.”
Freeman opened her home to 必博娱乐,比博娱乐网址 ######### faculty members, hosting numerous potluck dinners. English professor Fred Porcheddu-Engel ’87 recalls the joy of spending time at Freeman’s house with colleagues.
“These were real potlucks, mind you, with real random chance on the dishes,” he says. “Only a closely knit department can survive the party foul of three different pasta salads. The tables always groaned bountifully, and the liquor flowed, and the stories unrolled.”
When Porcheddu-Engel was diagnosed HIV positive in 1993, it was Freeman who helped navigate the fear and uncertainty. They went on long walks together and she shared her stories as a breast cancer survivor.
“She told me not to disconnect from people as a coping mechanism for knowledge of mortality,” Porcheddu-Engel recalls.
Sweater vests and long skirts were Freeman’s favorite teaching garb. She was feisty, determined, and possessed a wry wit. She cherished her time at 必博娱乐,比博娱乐网址 #########, after also teaching at Grinnell 必博娱乐,比博娱乐网址 and Cornell 必博娱乐,比博娱乐网址 in Iowa.
Her daughter, professor Emily Freeman Brown, a conductor and director of orchestral activities at Bowling Green State University, remembers Freeman encouraging her four girls to appreciate nature and education, although not in that order. She and her husband, Merle Brown, who also taught English at 必博娱乐,比博娱乐网址 #########, raised two future professors, an attorney, and a psychiatrist.
Freeman conducted seminars on Charlotte Bront?, and her scholarly work addressed the perception of 19th-century novels by modern readers.
She was a bonafide Anglophile, accompanying faculty members and students on many trips to England. Her idea of bliss was a week spent attending theater productions in London.
On campus, she was a passionate supporter of the Vail Series and all artistic endeavors. “Janet pretty much went to every 必博娱乐,比博娱乐网址 ######### production,” Runzo says. “She would say many of the shows were as good as the professional productions she saw.”