In Memoriam: Rhoda Flaxman, Founding Director
Rhoda Flaxman taught British and American Literature, first at the high school level, and then at Brown University(1987-2007), where she also directed Brown’s writing-across-the curriculum program and published on Victorian literature. She served as founding Director of The Open University of Wellfleet. She taught upper-level seminars in literature both on the Cape and at the Providence Athenaeum and recently led her tenth class on Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles. She was an avid walker, swimmer, reader and participated actively in the lives of her children and eleven grand-children.
Rhoda Flaxman died on March 10, 2024, of leukemia. She was living in Charlotte, North Carolina at the time. After adjusting to this new, sad reality, the OUW board decided that the best way to keep OUW vibrant and moving forward with new ideas was to collaborate with an organization that shared Rhoda’s goal of building community around intellectual exchange and the arts. Some have noted that our partnership with WPH already has a history, since Rhoda first offered her initial courses, that were focussed on Cape Cod, with the sponsorship of Wellfleet Preservation Hall.