[Reading-hall-of-fame] Re: Walter MacGinitie

[Shirley B Heath]

You are so right, for he was such a gentleman, ever ready to help younger scholars.  I first met him in that role after I began seeing my work interpreted as related to reading research.  He seemed puzzled by that, as was I in many ways, but he was so helpful to me and many other scholars.

Yes, I see the "old guards" leaving us with greater frequency than we could have imagined.  What we do not know is what will replace what we now think of as the "old guard" along with their ideas.  I predict it will be neuroscience research with more and more revelations about how the brain works in both oral language and in written texts.  That work now appears in many different journals, so we will see further division within that field, all to our advantage in learning more about the many miracles of just how we learn by taking in information from very varied sources.

Thanks to all willing to share memories about the full humanity of the "old guard."  What will happen now that much of the research on reading and related activities has gone to neuroscience will be increasing divisions within that field.  Keeping up will get harder and harder, for sure.  My fear is that those working within departments with titles such as "language, literacy, and culture" will begin to feel either left behind or pushed in new and exciting (though challenging) directions.  I wonder if others are seeing similar patterns within their departments and among their colleagues in the age bracket of 40s-60s.

Best to all, and thanks for the memories!

Shirley
________________________________
From: reading-hall-of-fame-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk <reading-hall-of-fame-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk> on behalf of Richard Anderson <csrrca at illinois.edu>
Sent: Friday, February 19, 2021 1:59 PM
To: Leu, Donald <donald.leu at uconn.edu>
Cc: reading hall of fame <Reading-hall-of-fame at lists.nottingham.ac.uk>
Subject: [Reading-hall-of-fame] Re: Walter MacGinitie

I first met Walter MacGinitie in the late 1950s at a conference for graduate students held at Northwestern. He represented Teachers College. I represented Harvard. Another person I got to know at the conference was Gordon Bower, then a grad student at Yale. My first job was at New York University. We saw Walter and Ruth a couple of times in New York and I saw him at conferences in subsequent years. With the passing of Walter and other giants in the field, it seems we are at the end of an era. Or maybe just the end of my era.

Dick

Richard C Anderson
University Scholar and Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois
Member, National Academy of Education


On Wed, Feb 17, 2021 at 2:53 PM Leu, Donald <donald.leu at uconn.edu<mailto:donald.leu at uconn.edu>> wrote:
Sadly, I report that another member, Walter MacGinitie, has passed.  I never knew Walter personally, only his important work, but word travels among members of the environmental communities concerned about the San Juan Islands of Washington. Walter lived on San Juan Island and he and his wife, Ruth, hadgifted 13 acres of important land to the San Juan Preservation Trust, an organization that my wife and I, as boaters who enjoy the islands, contribute to.    A tribute recently appeared in the SJPT newsletter:  https://sjpt.org/remembering-walter-macginitie/<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://sjpt.org/remembering-walter-macginitie/__;!!DZ3fjg!uaQMx0MjECCG-H9dbMd8mJz9YP89SfkKyjksfaPQBvoVAsBA_a_1YG6sVnuNLOFe$>

Be well.

Don

—
Donald J. Leu, Ph.D.

"Every  one of us is given the gift of life, and what a strange gift it is.  If it is preserved jealously and selfishly, it impoverishes and saddens. But if it is spent for others, it enriches and beautifies.”
  -- Geraldine  Ferraro.
     Acceptance speech at the 1984 Democratic Party National  Convention.






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