Janet M. Phillips, a BAM assistant editor from 1974 to 1980 and the author of the 1992 Brown University: A Short History, died of cancer on March 26. She was fifty and lived in Warwick, R.I.

Phillips’s history of the University was awarded a gold medal by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. A freelance writer and editor since 1987, Phillips was a communications specialist for the United Way, publications coordinator for the R.I.S.D. museum, and public-relations coordinator for the Jewish Community Center of Rhode Island.

A mental-health worker at Westwood (Mass.) Lodge Hospital from 1981 to 1984, she did fieldwork for her master’s in social work at Jewish Family Services in Providence and the Rhode Island Youth Guidance Center. She recently volunteered as a juvenile counselor for the Court Appointed Special Advocate program of the Rhode Island Family Court.

Phillips is survived by her husband, Robert Rushton, 28 Progress St., Warwick 02889; her father, Robert; and two stepdaughters.