Comments and Memories

Below are the comments and memories of people who have felt Gail's influence.

You are very welcome to add any thoughts, reflections, memories or stories you have about Gail. If you'd like to do this, please click here.

Gail was one of those rare persons that one is really blessed to be able to say he/she knew her.  She was amazing, so committed to her work, wonderfully dedicated, and constantly striving to make CA known and understood.

Her own contributions were singular, so original, so carefully done that one could only admire them and wish one could do as well.

It was so sad to learn of her passing and such a loss to the field.  I can only hope that these past years in Holland and marriage proved rewarding for her.  It is hard to express all she meant to the field and all she did.  It was a great personal pleasure to have known her and to know of her many contributions.

And also to work with her as we published Harvey's lectures in Human Studies.  She never sought the limelight and was  dedicated to Harvey's work and to advancing CA.  What else can be said?   Words are not enough.
George Psathas

I hadn't seen Gail for many years but I have warm memories of her from when I was much more junior scholar.  She could be quite terrifying in data workshops but it was clear that this came from her concern to challenge everyone to work at the highest standard.  She knew how important the work was and cared passionately that the next generation should be able to do it as well as the founders.  Outside the workshops, she was a generous colleague towards her juniors, producing momentary acts of utter kindness right out of the blue.  I shall miss her clarity of thought and rigour of analysis, but I shall especially miss her transparent enthusiasm and belief in the collective effort to solve fundamental problems in human social organization.
Robert Dingwall

Once, in Tilburg, Gail told me a little story about farmers who had the habit to test a girl who visited the family as a possible bride for one of the sons. One of the family members would 'accidentally' push off a box of pins, which would spread all over the floor. The girl was expected to react immediately by going down on the floor and meticulously collect all the pins. If she did that alright she would be accepted as a prospective bride. 'I am like that girl', Gail said.

Some time later, in an Amsterdam café called De Engelbewaarder (The Gardian Angel), we talked about jobs, and especially regular academic ones. I mentioned that taking such a job one also has to teach courses like 'introductory sociology'. She agreed and added 'that's not for me'.

Again some time later, I asked her what she would like to do at the 1991 Amsterdam Ethno/CA conference. 'I have nothing to report', she said, so we agreed she would do some data sessions. Later she did report at some conferences, but she often called them 'Notes on X', as she did in a number of her papers, or even 'preliminary notes'. These post-Tilburg papers were often formatted as demonstrations of her way of working, starting off from a remark by a colleague or an intriguing observation, followed by a 'data run', leading to some very tentative conclusions.

She appears to have seen her role in the CA community as a supportive and stimulating one. She made extremely careful transcriptions which could be and often were used by others. Her major project was to open up and preserve Harvey's legacy by transcribing and editing his Lectures. And she taught how CA should be done by example, in data sessions and presentations.

Paul ten Have

I had the pleasure of knowing Gail through her coming to Roehampton University to run data workshops for a number of years. The workshops always took place in early September a few weeks before her Whitby vacation.

My initial trepidation about Gail dissolved within the first few seconds of meeting her as I was immediately struck by her warmth and openness. Early on we swapped our copies of 'The Presidential Transcripts' she got my blue hardback edition and I got her annotated copy - complete with a photograph of her in her 'Born to Transcribe Watergate' T-Shirt.

Chatting with Gail was a treat as she shared crystal clear observations about all manner of human behaviour and in so doing stimulated all of us to clearer, better noticings. Whenever aspects of human interaction really strike me I find myself longing to share them with Gail.

I am so sorry that there won't be just another data session, another chance to notice and laugh or another hug goodbye. But, whilst longing for more, I am so thankful that I had a chance to meet with her and to experience her warmth and brilliance. Thanks Gail, you're great.
Paul Dickerson

The 2007 meeting of the International Pragmatics Association attracted many CA attendees because of a Schegloff session, and the spaces were too small.  When Gail spoke early the same day, there was an overflow crowd. I spoke to her after, apologizing that CA devotees had apparently overwhelmed the organizers' plans from years before. She replied that she would not come to an IPrA meeting again. Then she explained her health condition. It was a terrible moment.  I had the thought that the special sessions ought to have been in her honor.

Subsequently, working on a paper I gave there on the self-directed humor that abounds in my female talk data, we had correspondence. She sent many helpful comments, and her superb paper she called Tarzan and Jane, from Discourse Studies. What struck me in that paper, which was exactly on my topic, was her wonderfully detailed analysis, her concreteness, and her skill in teaching.  It is an example of the extraordinarily scrupulous explanatory searches that she undertook.  She lets you see the refining of her analysis, as it happens. There can be no better way to teach. It is like watching a great cook at work. No wonder the students came to sit at her feet that day. I felt I had lost her just when I was beginning to know her and to have strong respect for her subtle mind.
Susan Ervin-Tripp