Since I can not be there for Thelma's memorial, I thought I would just jot down some of my thoughts.
Thelma was my dissertation adviser, my critic, my relentless editor, and my dear friend. Newly arrived from a masters program in the US I was, literally, on foreign soil. I had come to York to study with a professor I had studied with as an undergrad at NYU. Things went badly and I found myself lost in the ideological/political maelstrom that was York University in the mid 1970's.
Thelma reached out, told me of a research project she was beginning, and asked if I had any interest in joining. That was the start of acareer in academia that would last some 35 "odd" years.
Everyone here is well aware of her academic accomplishments. With me she was exacting, rigorous, and always positive and supportive. My temperament was the opposite of hers and she nicknamed me Eeyore from the Winnie-the-Pooh character whose glass is always half empty. She cared about me, my progress, and my future success.
She also had a way of saying, when she had some doubt or question about some idea or explanation, "Oh, really?" with a certain skeptical lilt. It's funny because even in the
last month or so, with her illness well established, I spoke to her and she asked where I lived. I said New York, to which she responded with the same "Oh, really?"
Vintage Thelma.
Without her I would not have gotten through those pressurized PhD years. After leaving Toronto we kept in touch. Phone calls, Holiday cards, visits when I was in Toronto. She also graciously included some of my work in volumes she edited on communications.
I surely will miss her. Only wish I had stayed in touch more towards the end; maybe it's because her illness is all of our fears.
Dear Judy and Naomi,
My deepest condolence to you and your extended families on the passing of your mother. I remember the long ago loss of your father and hope for strengths to find you again now.
Thelma was such a wonderful woman and superb to work with. My contact with her was only in her administrative duties and her involvement in the Graduate Programs in Sociology and Women's Studies and it was always a pleasure to talk with her and try to resolve problems students may have had.
My parents knew Thelma and Bob McCormack many years ago, when they lived in Evanston. One of my early memories is of visiting the McCormacks in Montreal, when I was about 6 and Judith and Naomi were toddlers. Many years later I was at a meeting of the Canadian Sociological Association when, with the help of her name tag, I recognized her. I went up and introduced myself. Her face lit up and she introduced me to the people she had been talking to, saying "her mother was a feminist before there were feminists!" She later got in touch with my mother, which pleased my mother a great deal. My husband, Paul Gingrich, also remembers having a great conversation with Thelma about 10 years ago at a CSA meeting. Thelma was an inspiring person and however brief my acquaintance, I was glad to have known her.
How very sad to read of Thelma's death. She was a force of nature- with respect to Sociology, and to Women's Issues. It was always a pleasure to see her even though the occasions were increasingly rare. My heartfelt condolences to her family.