In Memoriam

Lora Elizabeth Swayne ’76 
History

A vice president and director of special projects with Cathay Bank, Lora Elizabeth Swayne ’76 died during the Eaton Fire in January. She was 71. 

According to a report from the L.A. County medical examiner, Swayne died as a result of “inhalation of products of combustion and thermal injuries.”  

A resident of Altadena, California, Swayne was born in 1953 to Louis and Lelia Swayne. According to her LinkedIn profile, for many years she worked in the financial services industry. In addition to Cathay Bank, she was previously employed by the Los Angeles Financial Credit Union. 

Swayne is predeceased by her father, a former investigative photographer, and her son, Matt, a graduate of Flintridge Preparatory School. A family service was held in May to celebrate her life.  

Dipannita Basu 
Professor Emerita, Africana Studies and Sociology 

An emerita faculty member beloved by many at Pitzer as “Professor of Hip Hop,” Dipannita Basu passed away in July at Pomona Valley Hospital after a long battle with cancer. She was 63. 

Born in India in 1961, Basu was raised in England and later moved to the United States to complete her postdoctoral work at UCLA. She spent 21 years as a member of the Pitzer faculty, introducing a global perspective to everything she did.

Basu was known for her sense of humor, her scholarship on the sociology of music, Black popular culture, and the politics of race and ethnicity, and a deep commitment to her students.  

During her career, Basu also worked with incarcerated youth at Feltham Young Offender Institution in the UK and at Camp Afflerbaugh–Paige in California, sharing education, meditation, and the uplifting power of art and music. She believed deeply in giving everyone a chance to grow and transform. 

In a LinkedIn message announcing her passing, Basu’s husband, Martin Perminas, celebrated her life of passionate inquiry as well as her defiance of a diagnosis with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) in 2012. He praised her for facing her illness “with unyielding courage, relentless curiosity, and a fierce will to live” and for pursuing innovative treatments that, her husband wrote, “showed that GBM does not have to be an immediate death sentence—her example forces us all to envision a future where this disease is a chronic, survivable condition.” 

A nondenominational service was held in July at Todd Memorial Chapel in Pomona followed by a celebration of her life at Lordsburg Taphouse & Grill in La Verne.