KENNETH PENLAND STRONG ’ 80 (’ 82 MFA, ’ 83 LICDA) 1958–2010
Professor Played Many Roles, But Teaching Also Brought Ovations
The repertory atmosphere, combined with
teaching, seemed to suit him. “He radiated love
to really everybody that knew him,” Ray Dooley,
a PlayMakers member and dramatic art professor,
told The DTH.
Strong served on the faculty of the depart-
ment of dramatic art, pri-
marily teaching large
classes. The student rat-
ings for his courses were
extraordinarily positive. “I
had heard about his class
from friends,” said
Brecken Branstrator, a
senior journalism and
mass communication
major who took Strong’s
course. “I loved the class.
I loved him and his ener-
gy.” Before each class,
Strong played Let’s Stay
Together by Al Green and
insisted everyone stand
up and move to the
music, she said. That
exercise really fit his per-
sonality, she said, and no
one felt uncomfortable because everyone par-
ticipated.
UNC senior Sarah Peck told The DTH that
Strong would tell students at the end of class,
“Remember, I love you.”
In addition to his teaching and work with
PlayMakers, Strong appeared on Broadway in
the mid-1990s revival of Inherit the Wind with
George C. Scott, as well as numerous roles off
Broadway and in regional the-
aters. He and his wife, Kee ’ 82 (MFA), who
also earned a licentiate in dramatic art in 1983,
spent several years at Atlanta’s Alliance
Children’s Theatre.
Strong’s appearances includ-
ed television’s Law & Order and
All My Children and the
movies Cold Sassy Tree and
RoboCop 3.
McKay Coble ’ 79, chair of
the dramatic art department,
had known Strong since they
attended undergraduate and
graduate school together at
UNC. “He was the kind of
person you wished you could
be,” said Coble, who also
earned a master of fine arts
from UNC in 1981. “He was
the real deal.”
She said Strong was teach-
ing last fall when his health
dictated it was time for him to
quit. Coble and Cornell
accompanied him — at the time, Strong was
using a wheelchair — to his final class. When
he said goodbye, the students gave him a stand-
ing ovation. “I will always remember the look
on his face as all that love came toward him,”
she said.
A week after his death, a memorial service
was held at the Paul Green Theatre.
— Sally Walters
Kenneth Penland Strong ’ 80 was known as
a stage chameleon who could take on any
role and often several roles in theater pro-
ductions. As a professor, he ended classes
by telling students, “Remember, I love you.”
On stage, he could transform into the con- flicted, Bible-thumping preacher of God’s
Man in Texas or the misguided aviator transformed in The Little Prince, among the more
than 50 characters in his years with PlayMakers
Repertory Company. But there was another
role Kenneth Penland Strong ’ 80 was
thrilled to play — a respected professor who
loved his students.
UNC NEWS SERVICES
Strong, 52, who also earned a master of fine
arts from UNC in 1982 and a licentiate of
dramatic art in 1983, died from brain cancer
Jan. 12. He had been scheduled to appear as
Newman Noggs in PlayMakers’ Nicholas
Nickleby last November and December. He
appears in some of the early photos of
rehearsals, but his health problems forced him
to withdraw.
Strong was a chameleon who could take on
any role. Jeff Cornell ’ 98 (MFA), PlayMakers
member and dramatic art professor, recalled his
first meeting with Strong in Beauty and the
Beast. For the show, Strong wore a 10-foot-tall
costume, operating parts of the costume with
pulleys, Cornell told The Daily Tar Heel. “I
have never seen such a larger-than-life performance, but that was Ken,” Cornell said.
Strong’s first appearance with the theater
company in 1991 took on three roles in
Shakespeare’s Pericles. During the next years, he
appeared in King Lear, Who’s Afraid of Virginia
Woolf?, Death of a Salesman and many more.
in
memoriam
’ 76 Christine Speir Cameron (’ 76 AB, ’ 79 JD) of Raleigh has been elected vice chair of the board of directors for the
N.C. Railroad Co. Cameron is clerk of court for the
N.C. Supreme Court. u Dr. Mario Grazia Fiorilli (’ 76
MPH) of Roanoke Rapids has been recognized in a
motion by the Roanoke Rapids city council for his 30
years of service to the community as a health professional. Fiorilli is an internist and infectious-disease
specialist with the Halifax Regional Medical Center.
u AlexSandra Lynn Lett (’ 76 ABJO) of Sanford was
presented the annual ARROW (Authors Reading and
Recording Original Works) by the N.C. Library for the
Blind and Physically Handicapped, Department of
Cultural Resources, for the audio edition of her book,
A Timeless Place. u John William Ussery Sr. (’ 76
BSBA) of Hilton Head Island, S.C., has joined his son,
John William Ussery Jr. (’02 AB), in brokerage sales
at the Ussery Group, operating under the banner of
Gateway Realty.
; obituaries
A. Thomas Cox (’ 76 BSIR), 55, of Cary; Nov. 30,
2009. At UNC, Cox was on the varsity lacrosse team.
u Steven Floyd Hight (’ 76), 60, of Winterville; Dec.
88 March/April 2010
4, 2009. Hight founded Hight Paper & Packaging Inc.
u David Kenneth Monroe (’ 76 PhD), 62, of Tucson,
Ariz.; Nov. 21, 2009. A physicist, Monroe worked for
Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. He
served in the Army in the Vietnam War.
’ 77 Deborah Carnes Christie (’ 77, ’ 76 JD) of Durham has published Green House: The Story of a Healthy, Energy-Efficient
Home. The book is a help book about the design
and construction process of the home she and her
husband, George, built in Durham. u Dr. Michael
Barry Kastan (’ 77 BSCH) of Cordova, Tenn., has been
elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National
Academies. Kastan is director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center at St. Jude Children’s Research
Hospital and serves on the external advisory board
of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. u Andromeda Monroe (’ 77 AB) of Davie, Fla.,
has been named an associate in the transactional
and regulatory division of Colodny, Fass, Talenfeld,
Karlinsky & Abate PA, where she practices insurance regulatory law. u David Oettinger Jr. (’ 77 JD)
of Rocky Mount has been appointed to the N.C.
General Assembly’s Revenue Laws Study Committee.
Oettinger is a CPA and lawyer with Oettinger & Norwood PA. u Sallie Shuping-Russell (’ 77 AB) of
Chapel Hill has joined the board of directors for the
Eastern N.C. chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Shuping-Russell is a managing director of
BlackRock and member of the UNC Board of
Trustees.
; obituaries
Deborah Crumpler Hiatt (’ 77 BSN), 54, of Winston-Salem; Nov. 30, 2009. Hiatt was a nursing care coordinator for the special infant care clinic at Wake
Forest University Baptist Medical Center. u Dr.
Elaine Woodard Huffman (’ 77 MD), 60, of
Rockingham; Dec. 13, 2009. Huffman was a physician with Sandhills Medical Group. u Daryle
Lawson Lamb (’ 77 MSLS), 63, of Greensboro; July 3,
2009. Lamb retired after many years as assistant
director of the Greensboro Public Library. In addition,
he taught library science classes at UNC-Greensboro.
’ 78 Donna Jones Dean (’ 78 MBA) of Darien, Conn., has received an MBA Alumni Merit Award from the Kenan-Flagler
