Ohio State Dance mourns the loss of Emerita Professor Ann Lilly, who died on Wednesday, June 4, 2025. She worked for Columbus City Schools and knew Department of Dance founding Chair Helen Alkire through Susan Schroeder, who was an adviser for student teachers. Helen needed a stage manager for the first dance concert in the spring of 1960 in Mershon Auditorium and she asked Ann to take on that role. The concert, which was funded by the athletic department, was a success, and Ann continued working for the Department of Dance as a stage manager for several years. 

Ann became assistant to the chair when the department was founded in 1968. “My duties were to do all the things [Helen] didn’t like to do,” said Ann during an interview with Ohio Dance. Ann worked tirelessly with Helen to build university support to create a performance-based dance major and to move the department into Sullivant Hall from the Armory building. 

“Huge Buckeye fans, if Helen Alkire was the head coach, Ann Lilly was the quarterback, defensive lineman and tackle all rolled into one,” says Emeritus Professor Dave Covey. “She was the muscle behind Helen’s intellectual vision, fighting for space, funding and faculty lines necessary to create what would become the Department of Dance. I know Helen was also at the line of scrimmage, ready to block any opponent who dared to stall their drive as they marched down the field, but I firmly believe Ann was the leader in pass interceptions.” 

“Ann Lilly joined the Department in its early years and was chief advisor to students and faculty, and most importantly to founder Helen Alkire,” says Emerita Professor Karen Bell. “After decades in Dance she became Assistant Dean in the College of Arts. She’s lived a long and friend filled life in German Village and later at Westminster Thurber. All of us who have been in the department over the past 50 years owe Ann our appreciation as she helped the department become the preeminent institution it is today. May she rest in peace.”