Award-winning educator dies of cancer

Marilyn “Mimi” Orner, 40, has died after a lengthy bout with cancer. A memorial service is planned today, Nov. 28, at 5:30 p.m., First Unitarian Society, 800 University Bay Drive.

Orner recently had accepted a position as an assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. During the last decade she had served the university as a teacher and advisor in the Women’s Studies Program, where she often taught courses such as Women and Popular Culture, Gender and Education, Constructions of Gender in the Media, and Race and Ethnicity in the Lives of U.S. Women, among others.

Earlier this year, Orner won the College of Letters and Science Excellence in Advising Award. In 1999, she was recognized with the Chancellor’s Hilldale Award for Excellence in Teaching.

With collaborator Joyce Follete, she won a 1999 Emma Award from the National Women’s Caucus for their video documentary “Step By Step: Building a Feminist Movement 1941-1977.” With Deborah Zucker, she founded a community anti-anorexia/bulimia/dieting project.

Orner’s husband, Clark Thompson, and her daughter, Sophia Orner-Thompson, survive her, in addition to many other family members and friends.

The family says donations may be made to Ovarian Cancer National Alliance, Box 33107, Washington, D.C. 20033; Gilda’s Club, 95 Madison Ave., Suite 609, New York, NY 10016; Congregation Shaarei-Shamayhim Children’s Educational Fund, 430 Sidney St., Madison, WI 53703; or Hospice Care, 5395 E. Cheryl Parkway, Madison, WI 53711.

A tree-planting ceremony will be held for Orner in the spring.