Obituary

Cornell editor Gertrude (Trudie) Baker Calvert died Aug 20 after a seven-year battle with cancer. She was 63.

Calvert was an editor with Cornell's Media and Technology Services for more than 20 years. Among the materials she edited were the local best-seller The Cornell Book of Herbs by Jeanne Mackin and "Nutrition Comes Alive--Nutrition for Life," a series of K-through-12 teaching materials that earned support from former New York first lady Matilda Cuomo.

At the Aug. 22 funeral service for Calvert at the United Methodist Church of Freeville, colleagues and clients spoke about her knowledge of, and passion for, editing. Nutritional sciences Professor Emeritus Martha Mapes called her a "top-of-the-line editor." Mike Powers, now acting director of Media and Technology Services, dubbed her "the queen of wordsmiths. We never knew anyone who got as much pleasure from a well-written sentence. She simply loved her craft." And Ellen Bonn, former manager of Media Services, said, "I measured other editors by Trudie."

Calvert served on Cornell's Employee Assembly and on the editorial board of the employee newspaper Paw Print. She received a Dedicated Service Award from Cornell in 1999 for that work. In a subsequent profile in Paw Print, she was lauded for "her heart as big as a set of encyclopedias."

In addition, she moonlighted as a highly respected editor of books for university presses throughout the country. Her clients included Cornell University Press and presses at the universities of North Carolina, Georgia and Louisiana.

But Calvert was perhaps best known on campus as the force behind the Cornell Editors' Group. For nearly two decades she managed the monthly luncheon meetings of Cornell's publications professionals, headed the planning committee, invited and introduced guest speakers, hired the caterer, handled finances and even cleaned up after gatherings. Colleagues honored her with a silver bell about the size of a good thesaurus, engraved with her name, which she rang to herald the start of each meeting. When she fell ill and was admitted to Ithaca's Hospicare this year, the group's planning committee moved its meetings to her bedside.

A single parent, Calvert typed papers for hundreds of Cornell students in her spare time, using the extra earnings to help pay for her daughters' college educations. Both are Cornell graduates. Calvert's parents were local residents who also graduated from Cornell, and Calvert herself earned a B.S. degree from the university in 1959, followed by an M.A. from the College of William and Mary. She is survived by her daughters, Ann Rayle and Laura Richardson, and four grandchildren. Donations in Calvert's memory may be made to Hospicare or the United Methodist Church of Freeville.