4/16/2008
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Anca Romantan died Monday April 14, 2008 at her home in Massachusetts after struggling with lung cancer for 18 months. Anca finished her Ph.D. at Annenberg in 2004, was Research Director for the Center of Excellence in Cancer Communication Research (CECCR) for two years and joined the Communication Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst as Assistant Professor in September 2006. Anca was a beloved friend, mentor, student, co-worker and scholar. Her infectious personality, charm and brilliance will be greatly missed. Please join us in celebrating Anca's life through photos and stories. |
Post a message 4/21/2008I was a classmate of Anca's from 2000-2002 at Penn. She was a brilliant woman, and full of life. She will be missed.
-Meredith Everson Lamont I am shocked and deeply saddened by the news of Anca's passing. Anca and I went to Annenberg at about the same time and we were pretty close through the 4 or 5 years we spent at Penn. Anca lived in Delaware for a while when her husband went to school at UD. I also lived in Delaware because my wife worked there. We shared a lot of train rides between Philadelphia and Newark, DE. We got in touch a couple of times after she went to UMass but she never mentioned her health. This is unbelievably sad news. She was so sweet and so smart. How could she leave us so young? As a classmate of Anca's from 2000-2002, I will always remember her warm smile, her sharp wit, and her stories about Romania. The communication world, and the world in general, has lost a bright star. My condolences to her family.
Joyce Garczynski
I must second those sentiments. I meet Anca my summer before
starting at
Annenberg and she was truly someone I will never forget. Whether she was
encouraging me through classes, doing some great analysis, riding her
fold-up bike or taking time to sit on the floor and play with my son,
she was always a special woman and friend. Losing her is a tragedy, just
as much as knowing her was a privilege.
Robin
I am really grateful for having known Anca and having had her as a friend: she was a brilliant academic, a true Renaissance scholar, knowledgeable about various fields and disciplines. We would be having a beer and alternating between discussions about Marxism and the Frankfurt School and her descriptions of the time-series analyses. She was a beautiful, genuine, lively and amazing person; one of very few women at Annenberg with short hair beautifully and stylishly cut by her Cornel (I kept joking that I wished he could cut mine too!), always smiling, and coming to school on a little bike that she would take indoors.
It is easy to acknowledge the loss and quickly return to our own preoccupations and obligations. Please reflect on this tragedy and join me in sending warm thoughts, love and gratitude to her and her family.
Magdalena
4/23/2008Anca left a gaping hole in my heart. We shared much, from the Annenberg office in the basement and the almost daily Tiramisu across the street from the school, to books, ideas, dreams and anxieties for the future. A year ago, when we were trying to find meaning in the tragic, horrible meaninglessness of her disease, we agreed, perhaps to comfort ourselves, that one cannot gauge the import of one’s life; it is only the others whom we somehow had touched, knowingly or unknowingly, that give us our true measure. I can say, humbly, that a precious part of Anca’s life continues on through mine, through all the things she taught me about friendship and joy for living. Of the many memories with Anca that I cherish, this is one that comes readily to mind: we were climbing Mount Washington one summer. We stopped to rest, with Anca ahead of us, a gracious, colorful silhouette against a wall of stones. Cornel, looking at her, asked me: “Have you ever seen such beauty?” – I am privileged to say that for eight too short years, I actually have.
Mihaela Popescu There are so many details of my interactions with Anca that I'm struggling to remember from the time we spent together at Annenberg (2000-2002). But I've come to realize that the details aren't important. I do remember, and I cherish, the heart and spirit and glamour that Anca brought to the place. I remember laughing uncontrollably with her. I remember how her smile lit up a room. I remember looking to her when I was befuddled by something one of our professors said or did and finding comfort in the look she returned that said, "I feel the same way." These things I will never forget.
Anthony Danna 4/27/2008
I remember her smile, so beautiful, so scintillating. She
was everything any of us would want to be: brilliant, engaging, masterful with
words, yet modest, simple. I was stunned at how she put ideas together, like
they always belonged. The last time I saw her, at NCA in Boston, I was in awe of everything she was.
Unbelievable.
Mariaelena
Mariaelena Bartesaghi, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Communication
University of
South Florida
(813) 974-6822
5/4/2008To Cornel and the rest of Anca’s family, I send my deepest condolences, thoughts and prayers during this difficult time. UMass, UPenn and the field of communication were all better institutions with Anca as a part of them. I am deeply saddened that I didn’t have a chance to tell Anca how much I thought of her before she left us. I will never forget her kindness and subtle yet poignant sense of humor. Anyone who met her surely experienced the former; I feel particularly lucky to have spent enough time working with Anca to share the latter. I know she loved to laugh, and I am glad I had the chance to laugh along with her.
Jeff Niederdeppe |
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Anca's friends and colleagues are welcome to post pictures and share stories in this public forum, or please email them to anca_public@asc.upenn.edu. If you prefer to share more personal and private pictures and stories within the Annenberg community, please send your thoughts and photographs to anca_private@asc.upenn.edu.
To view stories or pictures posted within the private forum you will need an Annenberg log-in. If you do not have an Annenberg e-mail account, please e-mail Megan Kasimatis at mkasimatis@asc.upenn.edu for access. All pictures and stories shared within the private forum will be compiled into a book for Anca's husband and family.
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