The obituary for Georgia Engel noted that she received her degree in theater from the University of Hawaii but said nothing else of her time in Hawaii (“Actress known for ‘Mary Tyler Moore’ role,” Star-Advertiser, April 16).

As a UH student at that time, I recall her performances and her personality fondly. She was captivating as Morgan Le Fay in “Camelot,” her whispery lines enticing even those in the back row of Kennedy, and her ballet-slippered walk marking the role as singularly hers. She was not always the star at Kennedy; in “Swan Lake” she joined the corps as one of the swans, backing Sylvia Nolan and Yasuki Sasa.

Perhaps little known is that Georgia chose Russian as her required foreign language. Two years her senior in that department, I tutored her through the intricacies of the Cyrillic alphabet and the un-English sounds, plopped down on the floor wherever there was room between calls to the stage.

Those of us who knew her admired her talent but also envied the fact that she lived in the Diamond Head Lighthouse. How cool was that?

As Robert Soller, the director of “Camelot,” watched Georgia one night from the wings, he predicted, “That one’s going far.” So right.

Milton Kimura

Pittsburgh, Penn.

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