Raymond J. Rorke, CGS’79, CGS’06, a renowned designer, artist, and clay sculptor and a staff member in various departments at Penn (including the Penn Museum, the Penn Libraries, Development and Alumni Relations communications, the School of Design, and the Arthur Ross Gallery), died on May 21. He was 66.

Mr. Rorke graduated from Penn’s College of General Studies in 1979 and immediately joined Penn’s staff as a secretary at the Penn Museum. He continued to advance at the museum through the 1980s and 1990s, becoming an exhibit design assistant and eventually an IT specialist. In 2001, he switched departments to become an IT specialist in the Penn Libraries, and the next year he moved again, to the department of development & alumni relations. He later held positions in development as a staff writer and communications specialist, and also became a part-time teacher in the School of Design later in the decade. He retired from teaching and his other duties in 2017, but a year later, took on a temporary position at the Arthur Ross Gallery, which he held until his death. 

Mr. Rorke was a longtime writer and designer who lived through the evolution of hand-set type into hand-coded webpages, and was very fond of tinkering with words. He was also a teaching artist and the in-house graphic designer for the Clay Studio in Philadelphia. Mr. Rorke contributed pieces to exhibitions in Philadelphia and around the country (including at Penn’s Charles Addams Hall) and aspired to infuse the everyday objects he made with grace and authenticity.