VSU Associate Professor of Art, Danielle B. Harmon, died the morning of August 17th. She had been battling with melanoma cancer.
Since 2003, she was a part of the VSU faculty in the Department of Art. She taught classes, such as foundations design and drawing. She was survived by two sons: Gus, 11, and Hopper, 2, and her husband Jamie, who was also an artist.
She was greatly loved and respected by her colleagues and students.
Harmon received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Memphis College of Art and her Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Memphis.
The family gathering will be held in Mississippi.
On Aug. 16, VSU Circulation Assistant 3, Judy O’Brien died of a heart attack during a family vacation in Naples, Fla.
The New Jersey native was a VSU employee for over 20 years and recently received an award for her 20 years of services at Odum Library. Brien was hired in 1987 as a Library Assistant 2 and was later promoted to Library Assistant 3 in 1996.
She was known throughout Odum as the “Heart of Circulation” because of her dedication to helping students and training new employees.
Her lost was a devastating shock to the staff, including Circulation Manager Alan Bernstein who said “She was my right- arm; there will never be another Judy.”
O’Brien was also an animal lover; she owned two dogs and was heavily devoted to her Evangelist Church.
Her brother, former VSU employee, Malcolm Rainey expressed his sister’s act of selflessness. “She was always helping someone. She always put others before herself.”
A special service for O’Brien will be held at St. John’s Catholic Church on Oct.6.
With the deaths of Harmon and O’Brien, this makes five deaths in the VSU community since the start of sumnmer.