A. Cleveland Harrison

Dr. A. Cleveland Harrison, Emeritus Professor of Theatre at Auburn University, has died. Born August 17, 1924, in McRae, Arkansas, Dr. Harrison died of acute leukemia early in the evening of June 16, 2012. His humor, his intellect, and his extraordinary creativity will be keenly missed by all but never forgotten by those that knew and loved him. Dr. Harrison came to Auburn in 1970 from the University of Arkansas, at Fayetteville, where he served for over 13 years in the undergraduate and graduate programs as supervisor of the basic speech program, director of the basic fine arts program, and chairman of the Department of Speech and Dramatic Art. Dr. Harrison joined the faculty of Auburn's School of Architecture and Fine Arts to direct the revision of the theatre curriculum and the design the new fine arts theatre building which is in use today. During the next 21 years, Dr. Harrison served first as head professor and as senior professor, building performance and technical curricula and faculty and technical staff for the program, which culminated in the department's membership in the National Association of Schools of Theater. Throughout the first ten years of his tenure, the department produced nine full-length plays each semester, with him directing at least two each year while administering the department and teaching the exclusively academic courses in the curriculum. Additionally, among the roles he acted on Auburn's stage were Sir Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons, Clarence Day in Life with Father, Captain Hook in Peter Pan, and Lazar Wolfe in Fiddler on the Roof. Dr. Harrison' educational background included a Ph.D. in Drama and Theatre from the University of Kansas, an MA in play directing from the University of Arkansas, and an MA in communication, and BS in English and speech from The Ohio State University. His primary research was in nineteenth-century American and English drama, especially the works of the English-American playwright-director-actor Dion Boucicault, whose theories of dramaturgy were the subject of his dissertation. Dr. Harrison's academic essays appeared in the Quarterly Journal of Speech, The Speech Teacher, Theatre Journal, Southern Speech Communication Journal, and the Journal of Aesthetic Education; and his one-act play, The Ladies of Fashion, an adaptation in verse of Moliere's Les Precieuses Ridicules, was published by Chandler Publications of San Francisco. After his retirement in 1991, the Alabama Conference of Theater and Speech awarded him the Theater Hall of Fame Award "for distinguished contributions and enduring dedication as a past pioneer in Alabama Theater." With his retirement underway, Dr. Harrison made frequent and award winning contributions to publications of the Pulaski County Historical Society. His highly praised memoirs Unsung Valor: A GI's Story of World War II (2000) received the Forrest C. Pogue Prize of the Eisenhower Center of American Studies in 2001, and his second autobiographical work, A Little Rock Boyhood: Growing Up in the Great Depression (2010), was released in April of 2010. Both memoirs can be found on Amazon.com and other popular book ordering sites. Dr. Harrison is survived by his beloved wife of 66 years, Marian, his children, Kathleen and Lee Harrison, as well as Kathleen's two sons, his grandsons, Robin and Sasha Hart. Jeffcoat-Trant Funeral Home & Crematory is in charge of arrangements.