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| Michael Robin Browne 1941-2024 Oberon Shakespeare Study Group meeting Bloomfield Hills Library Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, February 9, 2019 |
Robin has been a part of the Oberon Shakespeare Study Group almost from the beginning. He very rarely missed one of our meetings in various libraries in the past, and always had much to contribute.
Although not a strict Oxfordian -- he tended toward Francis Bacon as the author -- Robin was always there to supply us with incredible information from his extensive research and background, and was always open to all the various interpretations of the evidence surrounding the Shakespeare authorship inquiry.
Robin often regaled us with the findings of his late friend Donald Strachan, who was one of the premier cryptanalysts writing (ironically usually under a pseudonym) on the hidden ciphers and messages in the works of Shakespeare -- almost always from the Baconian point of view.
Whenever we met -- as I will say more, later -- Robin would let me know how he was progressing on a biography of Donald, and the effort to republish Donald’s work. I hope that all of this work may yet be salvageable now that Robin has passed on.
Recently, Robin had been visiting Riverbank Laboratories outside of Chicago, where George Fabyan had invited William Friedman and his wife Elizebeth to work on ciphers and codes for the US government for further information. It was mainly there that the Friedmans did their work on the purported ciphers and messages hidden in the works of Shakespeare. Although they officially reported that there were no such believable ciphers there, they did so in a book that was sponsored by the Birthplace Trust in Stratford!
Robin was in possession of a letter that William Friedman wrote to Donald Strachan saying that it was quite possible that Donald’s findings could fulfill the criteria that the Friedmans had set out for determining whether ciphers were valid and that he, Friedman, would welcome further information from Donald. I never found out from Robin whether this led to anything further.
Robin’s interests went further into other subjects. He was definitely a member of the British Society of Cinematographers and I believe also a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Robin often shared with me and the Oberon Group details of upcoming motion pictures that he had seen advance copies of, including the 2011 Shakespeare authorship film, Anonymous.
Robin took many trips to England -- sometimes twice a year -- to visit former colleagues and friends from his cinematography days, as well as to conduct his own research on Shakespeare-related things.
For the past three years, Robin and I have been meeting about once a month for breakfast; and more recently, Rosey Hunter has sometimes joined us. It is these breakfast meetings that I will most miss now that Robin is no longer with us.
Robin kept me abreast of his trips to England, Riverbank Laboratories, and other places and always had new information to share with me. We also discussed what went on in the Oberon/SSOS zoom meetings because we usually met on the Sunday following those Zoom meetings, and Robin always had new insights to share.
I will always cherish the memory of knowing Robin. His passing certainly leaves an enormous hole in Oberon, and the wider authorship community.
We have all been touched by Robin's kindness, extraordinary knowledge, and good fellowship.