Julian, Wendy, Julie, Deborah at the Matrimandir in 2018
Deborah Lawlor passed on at 7:59 pm Tuesday night, May 2nd, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
She and her husband, Robert, were pioneers in Forecomers and presented the first harvest from Auroville to Mother. With a background in dance and theater, they presented a torchlit drama in the Forecomers canyons during the early years and built a check dam in the canyon by hand that was soon washed out by a major cyclone. They left Auroville for two years to recover their health, holding a summer immersion in upstate New York in 1972 introducing a group of college students to the philosophy behind Auroville and taught yoga, dance, macrobiotics and organic farming. Other teachers and visitors included Marjorie Spalding, Zena Daysch, Robert McDermott, “Mickey” Finn, Jehangir Chubb and Admiral Rutledge Tompkins.
Upon returning to Auroville, Robert researched chlorella algae as a supplement to the local diet, as well as aloe vera and experimented with earth stabilization using natural materials. Together Bob and Deborah made a deep dive into sacred geometry, aided by their friends Andre and Goldian VandenBroeck in the US and Constance and Dhruva in Auroville. They started work on translating “The Temple of Man” by R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz from the original French with help from Lucie Lamy, de Lubicz’s niece and Ehud Sperling, of Inner Traditions, who eventually published the book.
Alarmed by the revocation of the visas of Francis and Savitra by Navajata of the Sri Aurobindo Society, Robert and Deborah moved to Flinder’s Island, Tasmania, with the help of Joss Brooks, in order to hold a Commonwealth country passport and allow them better access to Auroville. The ensuing years of drama between the SAS and Auroville pushed them to create a home in Tasmania and focus on their research, making occasional trips to the US to be with friends and family and participate in the Lindisfarne Association where he collaborated with Keith Critchlow on the building of The Grail in Crestone, Colorado.
Bob and Deborah parted ways as a couple with Deborah moving to Los Angeles and collaborating with director Stephen Sachs in founding The Fountain Theater and holding festivals of flamenco dance. Deborah returned to Auroville and took an part time apartment in Creativity. She collaborated with Jill on theater and hosted Nadaka, Gopika and Keshava in LA.
She and Robert returned to Auroville in 2018 for the 50th Birthday celebrations but she was already showing signs of memory loss due to Alzheimer’s. But she was very happy to be with Chamanlal and Shipra, Joss, Francis, Frederick, Shyama, Piero, Gloria, Jocelyn and many other dear pioneer friends.
She and Stephen Sachs presented many critically acclaimed plays at the Fountain Theater where South African playwright Athol Fugard especially enjoyed premiering his work. Deborah also produced her own work about the dancer Freddie Herko, “Freddie”.
Her love of Flamenco and the cultivation of new Flamenco artists created a lasting legacy in that community. Sonidos Gitanos Flamenco productions over 25 years were prominent in making her named the Flamenco godmother. They debuted in 1995 at the John Anson Ford theatre and became an annual event for almost 25 years. From that collaboration Maria (Chacha) Bermudez became a close friend and looked after her as her loss of memory made independent living impossible.
Robert Lawlor died six months earlier in Tasmania at the end of November, 2022. Deborah passed peacefully in Los Angeles after some months in assisted living. She was 84.
Deborah, Francis, Shyama, Robert
I am very fortunate to have shared a few weeks with Deborah.
Robert and Deborah
Adam and Eve
Blessings to all whose lives they touched.
– Julie Manna (who accompanied Deborah to Auroville in 2018 and resides at Matagiri)
An amazing rush of memories…some of the last ones walking home with her to her house in LA with coyotes following us … I see her dancing flamenco on Flinders now and forever
– Joss Brooks
In July of ’68 I drove out to the site of Forecomers with Larry (Dhruva) and Mary Helen (Chali’s parents). Since June, Bob and Deborah had been in the process of building two huts, one for living quarters and one for a dance and painting studio.
In her bearing and in her character Deborah displayed an air of grace and a life of culture. Nonetheless, she was not at all incongruent with the barren fields and baked, eroded red laterite where they were settling. This was the New Creation. Rather than out of place, her presence there was wondrous.
– Constance
Where to put the words? I stayed in Forecomers when i needed a relief from my treehouse and those long bicycle rides across the plains of baked earth, now green and forested. Bob was indeed a forecomer with his work on sacred geometry, etc. They were really among the first to work hard trying to implement the Vision. I studied dance with Deborah. She said I was her best pupil but then again – I was the only one hahaha. We spent many an evening together in the light of kerosene lamps eating bowls of their version of macrobiotic food and discussing art and whatever. And now they are gone, within a few months of each other. Well farewell old friends, You will be creative forecomers again!
-Lady Jean Finney