Adele E. Shank, a playwright and long-time member of the faculty and chair of what is now the department of theatre and dance at the University of California, San Diego, died late last month in San Diego. She was 74 years old.
A native of Litchfield, Minnesota, she grew up on a farm. Later, her family moved to California and she enrolled at the University of California, Davis. Shank joined the faculty at the University of California, San Diego in 1981 as a lecturer and was named to the permanent faculty in 1984.
Shank and her husband Theodore, who is a distinguished professor emeritus in the department of theatre and dance at the university, established the Adele and Theodore Shank Professional Playwriting Residency Award at the university. The endowed position funds internship positions for master of fine arts students at the University of California, San Diego at theatre companies around the nation. A theatre on the university campus is named in honored of the Shanks.