[Reading-hall-of-fame] Re: I just got this message this instant

Sat Dec 12 19:18:55 GMT 2020

Very sad news, indeed.

Jay was on my doctoral committee at the Univ of MN, and I was his research assistant on several projects, including one lab study of college students’ eye movements while reading mirror image texts to simulate beginning reading and the benefits of repeated reading.  And, I was one of several teaching assistants who led small-group discussions after his lectures in large sections of his undergraduate ed psych course.  In typical Jay fashion, to make sure we were paying attention to his lectures, he required all of us to enroll in the course for grad credit and to take the course tests along with the undergrads—for a grade. In his teaching I recall him giving every-day, and therefore memorable, examples of sophisticated psychological constructs, something that influenced my own university teaching.  I learned a lot in that course and also as a student in Jay’s sought-after doc seminar on the psych of reading, and from being close to his high-profile professional life.  For example, he graciously invited me and a few doc students to accompany him to dinner when Eleanor Gibson, then an academic superstar who had written with Harry Levin the definitive book on the psychology of reading and who he had invited to give a talk.

Working with him was an education on multiple levels.  Two of his qualities have influenced and stuck with me throughout my career.  First, Jay had a way of cutting through abstractions and details to identify the simple heart of matters or the key question that others were dancing around but just couldn’t formulate precisely.  Second, he was a great model of a theoretical, quantitative researcher who was clearly committed to translating theory and research into practical applications to teaching.  There is no better example than his seminal theoretical and experimental work on attention’s role in reading and learning to read and his consequent development of repeated reading as an instructional strategy.  No one has more influenced me to ask the “so-what” question about my work in relation to practice.

Jay was also a bit of a character that made him an interesting and pleasant person to be around.  He had a unique uninflected cadence to his voice that somehow simultaneously projected intimidating authority but also an approachable openness to other’s views   He was singularly analytical, but not in a narrow or threatening way. I also remember him telling a story about how he acquired an in-depth knowledge of statistical analysis.  Again, in typical Jay fashion, he told us how as a young scholar he booked a cross-country train trip bringing along a small library of statistics books, which he read thoroughly without interruption and that he had mastered by the end of the trip.  He was also unselfconscious when it came to pursuing his passions and interests.  For example, for exercise he liked to roller skate around the Minneapolis lakes in tights and on at least one occasion was still wearing them when I met with him in his office.

I have many other fond memories and stories that might be told about Jay.  In me, and many others who had the privilege to work closely with him, his memory and legacy lives on.

David Reinking
Adjunct Professor of Education
University of Georgia
Dept. of Language and Literacy Education
David.Reinking @uga.edu
http://www.davidreinking.info<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com_-3Furl-3Dhttp-253A-252F-252Fwww.davidreinking.info-252F-26data-3D01-257C01-257Clg40-2540txstate.edu-257Cd43f2d8241584a0ca81608d50aa7b5c9-257Cb19c134a14c94d4caf65c420f94c8cbb-257C0-26sdata-3Dji-252FNnlYJBKtAbG0lEfttgJUZxsi6BinXvN1OaPMm5Uc-253D-26reserved-3D0&d=DwMFAg&c=Ngd-ta5yRYsqeUsEDgxhcqsYYY1Xs5ogLxWPA_2Wlc4&r=gUnMZ3Xw_juA4Q4q8MsCC_IKO_x_v_mImmv8TQcuKAs&m=UedHPeoTlZDAK_Y35nsdvaZ1tvfVsAXM3l43vQNlACI&s=5qWqgpYErOqlfng1rqjL41TgwAGTYZ6oMB15g45RwUc&e=>/
orcid.org/0000-0001-8040-6673
UGA code:  810-23-2567-984-015

From: <reading-hall-of-fame-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk> on behalf of P Pearson <ppearson at berkeley.edu>
Date: Saturday, December 12, 2020 at 12:44 PM
To: reading hall of fame <reading-hall-of-fame at lists.nottingham.ac.uk>
Subject: [Reading-hall-of-fame] I just got this message this instant

[EXTERNAL SENDER - PROCEED CAUTIOUSLY]
From Jay Blanchard, who lives in the Phoenix area and has visited Jay with some regularity].

Jay Samuels passed this AM of COVID.
I am saddened by this development, especially with COVID as the proximal cause. As many of you know, Jay, along with RHF members Bob Dykstra and John Manning, was an influential mentor for me when I was at Minnesota as a grad student and a new professor.  I have such vivid memories of so many things Jay did and said.

Haunting (in both an eerie and a very sweet sense) that Jay died on the very day when many are memorializing the contributions of Ken Goodman.  Although Jay and Ken help what many of us thought were diametrically opposing views of early reading development and pedagogy, the two shared an alma mater (both got their doctorates at UCLA) and an abiding respect for the contributions of the other to the study of reading processes and pedagogies.

David
--
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P. David Pearson
Evelyn Lois Corey Emeritus Professor of Instructional Science
Graduate School of Education
University of California, Berkeley

email:  ppearson at berkeley.edu<mailto:ppearson at berkeley.edu>
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