Lawrence BROER

BROER, Dr. Lawrence R. 84, passed away on November 30, 2022, at his home in Tampa. Dr. Broer retired from the University of South Florida in 2003 as Professor Emeritus of English, although for a number of years, he continued to teach graduate students and supervise their research. He was an internationally acclaimed scholar of modern and postmodern literature. He published widely in critical collections and professional journals and authored or edited nine books, including Hemingway's Spanish Tragedy (1973), Sanity Plea: Schizophrenia in the Novels of Kurt Vonnegut (1989), Rabbit Tales: Poetry and Politics in John Updike's Novels (1998), Hemingway and Women: Female Critics and the Female Voice (2002) edited with Gloria Holland, and Vonnegut and Hemingway: Writers at War (2012). While at USF, he received the Theodore and Vanette Askounes-Ashford Distinguished Scholar Award and the Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching. He served as a Fulbright lecturer at the University of Paris in 1981 and 1984, and he was a senior Fulbright Specialist for the past five years. His life outside of teaching and writing was filled with travels abroad, often to important academic conferences at which he presented papers. He was also an ardent fan of college sports, especially Florida State University athletics, and was known to enjoy watching the Seminoles with a few close friends from his undergraduate and graduate days at FSU. He took pride in his own athletic abilities, which were many and varied, but perhaps his being quarterback for the USF Faculty Football Team was "The Crown." After retiring, he was a participant in senior softball leagues into his eighties. He is survived by his partner, Béatrice Frouté De Domec; his two sons, Joshua Broer and Wesley Broer; and his stepson, Ashkahn Ardalan.