Deceased Date Unknown

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50th Reunion Book Entry


In Memory

Boris Baranovic lived a noteworthy life, ending in his native Yugoslavia (Serbia) in 2016. The exact date and cause are not known. Boris joined our class junior year but remained something of a mystery to most of us then and after.

Born in Sibenick, Yugoslavia, he studied at the University of Zagreb (philosophy) and specialized in history and art history. In September 1952 he went on a student excursion to Italy and decided to defect to the West. He ended up in Naples in a center for defectors and started taking courses in scene design and art history at the University of Naples.

Boris loved Naples, where he “learned how to live and grow differently from the patterns of Communist rule.” Setting the stage for his life to come, Boris said, “Music and laughter and culture were part of my every moment; in the freedom of those four years, I grew into a young man with a new sense of future and possibility.”

A small exhibition of work for a display at the American Consulate serendipitously led to a scholarship to Amherst. Kirby Theater Masquers and the Glee Club became his family. He attended the Yale University School of Drama and earned a master’s degree. His first job was at the University of Buffalo, where he met American composer and critic Virgil Thompson. He designed sets for one of Thompson’s operas. Thompson also helped Boris study with the Wagner family in Bayreuth and at Spoleto festivals with Giancarlo Menotti. Thompson composed one of his Piano Portraits about Boris (“Whirling”).

From 1966 to 1993 he was in the performing arts department at American University, designing over 100 productions. Retiring as professor emeritus, he moved to Baltimore, where he housed a large collection of paintings and sculpture. For our 50th, Boris donated 128 caricatures by Honoré Daumier to Mead Art Museum.

Allen M. Clark ’58