Donna Marie Wulff of Providence, Rhode Island, passed away peacefully on February 16, 2025, at age 81. Donna was born in Buffalo, New York, to Ruth (McVay) and Daniel Kevin ("Kev") Foley, a pilot in the Army Air Corps who died in 1944 fighting in World War II. Ruth later married Leland Beik, who adopted Donna. She is survived by her daughter Megan Wulff (Liz Genné-Bacon), granddaughter Audrey Wulff-Genné, former husband David Wulff, sisters Paula Beik (Evan Craig) and Linda Beik, brother David Beik (Patti), and four nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents and her sisters Carol Mack (Greg) and Janet Beik (Robert Claus).

Donna graduated from State College Area High School in 1961 as a National Merit Scholar, then studied world religions at Oberlin College, where she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa as a junior and graduated summa cum laude. Donna was the first woman to enroll in a PhD program in comparative religion at the Harvard Center for the Study of World Religions, and the first PhD candidate in her program to pass her qualifying exams with distinction. Her dissertation, "Drama as a Mode of Religious Realization: The Vidagdhamadhava of Rupa Gosvamin," was later published.

Donna taught Religions of India at Brown University for 37 years before retiring in 2011. She spearheaded the development of the interdisciplinary South Asian Studies concentration and chaired the South Asia Faculty Group. Donna's research focused on the lives and struggles of women singers in Bengal, and she spent five years conducting research in India, supported by various fellowships and a Fulbright scholarship. Donna co-edited two books, "The Divine Consort: Radha and the Goddesses of India" and "Devi: Goddesses of India," and published numerous research articles. Her students were by far her favorite part of her work, providing her with renewed purpose and excitement each semester.

A lifelong fighter for diversity, equity, and inclusion, Donna spent her life merging the personal and political. She was the first female professor in the Religious Studies Department, and in the 1970s and early 1980s Brown did not yet offer maternity leave. When her daughter Megan was born, she taught her class on Tuesday, gave birth on Wednesday, took Thursday off, and was back to teaching again the following Tuesday. She often told this story not (primarily) to brag, but to remark on how much things had changed for the better for working women since that time - changes that she herself helped to fight for as the Chair of the Brown Committee on the Status of Women in the late 1980s. Donna was also a strong advocate for greater intercultural diversity in Brown's curriculum, often speaking out in favor of expanding Brown's offerings in the humanities to embrace a wider range of cultures and religions. She was horrified by the rise of Hindu Nationalism in India, and wrote a scathing critique in the Brown Journal of World Affairs.

Music was a lifelong love for Donna. In high school, she played every musical instrument she could get her hands on, including clarinet in the marching band. Donna sang in the Oberlin College Choir, which in 1964 performed in the Soviet Union for seven weeks, making history as part of a new Cold War cultural exchange program. While at Harvard, she sang in the Harvard University Choir, studied voice at the Longy School of Music, and conducted chamber choirs. From 2000 to 2017, she sang with the Providence Singers, with whom she had the honor of performing with the Dave Brubeck quartet.

Donna acquired a love of tennis from early childhood lessons with her adoptive father Lee, and passed this family tradition on to Megan. In her seventies, unwilling to give up on tennis after an injury to her right shoulder, she hired a coach and learned to play left-handed.

In her retirement, Donna continued to advocate fiercely for positive change in the world, organizing a talk on climate change by a sitting U.S. Senator, arranging a lecture on Democracy and Islam at her beloved church, Central Congregational Church in Providence, and single-handedly badgering her retirement community into establishing a recycling program. Unwilling to stick around for the most recent assault on America's democracy, Donna passed away peacefully in her sleep surrounded by the love of family and friends.

A celebration of life will be held later this year. We welcome your memories of Donna on the Tribute Wall at the top of this page. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to the ACLU or the Southern Poverty Law Center. In her honor, buy a copy of her favorite book, Timothy Snyder's "On Tyranny," read it, and pass it on to a friend.