Obituaries

Eleanor Jack Gibson, the developmental psychologist whose experiments with infants and other young animals showed how we all learn to perceive the world around us, died Dec. 30 in Columbia, S.C., at age 92. A researcher in the Department of Psychology from 1949 to 1966 and professor in that department until her retirement in 1979, Gibson was among the first to break the so-called nepotism barrier that kept spouses from faculty appointments in the same department at American universities. She also was the first woman to hold an endowed professorship at Cornell, the Susan Linn Sage Professor of Psychology.

One of Gibson's landmark discoveries, published in the 1969 classic Principles of Perceptual Learning and Development, is illustrated in a photo that is familiar to readers of introductory psych texts worldwide. The picture shows a diapered infant, crawling across a checkerboard-patterned tabletop, toward its beckoning mother. Partway across the table, the checkerboard gives way to transparent glass, and although the infant could have continued safely, it has halted at what Gibson came to call a "visual cliff." Her point was that depth perception and other skills for navigating a perilous world develop as needed -- when locomotion is possible -- and not before.

After the infant and animal studies, Gibson investigated more sophisticated perception skills, attempting to show how children learn to recognize and read words and how adults appreciate the sensory differences in wines. Some of her studies were in collaboration with her husband, James G. Gibson, also a Cornell psychologist, who died in 1979.

An active career in writing and research followed retirement from Cornell, and she held appointments at the universities of Minnesota, South Carolina, Pennsylvania and Connecticut; Dartmouth College; Emory University; the Salk Institute; and the Institute of Psychology in Beijing, China. She had moved to Columbia to be near the family of her son, James J. Gibson, M.D., who survives her.

Born in Peoria, Ill., in 1910, she earned her bachelor's degree (1931) at Smith and master's (1933) and Ph.D. (1938) at Yale. She recalled her experimental studies in the 1991 book An Odyssey in Learning and Perception.

Other survivors include her sister, Emily Jack, of Washington, D.C.; a daughter-in-law, a son-in-law and four grandchildren. Memorial services will be announced.

The "baby lab" Gibson used in Uris Hall is now named in her honor, and one of the department's most prestigious events will be renamed the Eleanor J. and James J. Gibson Lecture with an inaugural symposium this fall. Contributions in honor of Eleanor Gibson can be made to the Gibson Lecture Series, c/o Tom Gilovich, chair, Department of Psychology, Uris Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. 14853.

Judith Ruth Ginsburg, professor of classics, died at home Dec. 28. She was 58. She taught in the Department of Classics from 1976 until the time of her death.

"Judy Ginsburg was Cornell's most beloved classics teacher of the past 25 years," said Hayden Pelliccia, classics department chair. "She stimulated students intellectually, while her gentle personality, which combined kindness with integrity and courage, inspired even the most diffident of them to take confidence in themselves. She excelled in the small seminar and attracted many doctoral students, but also in larger milieus, and succeeded in developing the survey of Roman history into one of the most popular classics lecture courses. She bore an extremely painful illness with awe-inspiring courage and dignity ­ an exhibition of deep-rooted strength, virtue and, we can say, Roman nobility of character that came as no surprise to those who knew her best. She will be bitterly missed."

She was born in 1944 in Omaha, Neb., and graduated from Omaha Central High School in 1962. She received her B.A. and Ph.D. in classics and Roman history at the University of California-Berkeley and her master's degree at UCLA. She held visiting appointments at Tel Aviv University, the University of Maryland and the American Academy at Rome, where she was also a member of the Advisory Council. At Cornell she was an active member of the Womens' Studies Program throughout her career and of the graduate field in the Department of History. Her generous administrative service to Cornell was matched by leadership in the American Philological Association, where she most recently chaired the Nominating Committee. This fall she completed a book on Agrippina, a critical re-evaluation of the representations of the most influential woman of the Julio-Claudian dynasty in literature, art and the Roman popular imagination.

Survivors include her beloved partner, Miri Amihai (Collins); her brother James of Venice, Calif.; and several aunts, uncles and cousins in the United States and Israel.

Funeral arrangements were handled through Lansing Funeral Home Inc. She was buried at Lakeview Cemetery in Ithaca on Jan. 2. In lieu of gifts of condolence, donations can be made to her favorite charity, the Givat Haviva Educational Foundation Inc.: The Jewish-Arab Center for Peace, 114 West 26th St., Suite 1001, New York, N.Y. 10001. Arrangements for a memorial service in the spring will be announced at a later date.

Professor Emeritus Robert N. Allen died Dec. 14 after a brief stay in hospice care.

Allen was professor of engineering and operations research at Cornell for 35 years, retiring in 1977. He is survived by his wife, Patricia, daughters Jennifer and Kathleen, son-in-law Robert, two grandchildren and many extended family members.

Allen was an avid golfer and student of the game. His kindness and warmth touched many.

His family requests that any contributions be made to the Center for Hospice Care, Monmouth Medical Center, 300 2nd Ave.-CW6, Longbranch, N.J. 07740.