I met Dr. Linda Anderson Foley in 1980, soon after I began graduate school. At the time I met Dr. Foley, she was dating my major professor. Their long distance romance did not continue, however, because, at the time I met her, Dr. Foley was the chairperson of the Psychology Department at the University of North Florida, located in Jacksonville, a few hours away from Tallahassee, where my major professor was employed by the Florida State University. Thus, it was not until 1984, when I moved to Jacksonville to work as the Director of Marketing Research at a local hospital, that I regained contact with Dr. Foley. She was still the psychology department chairperson and when I stopped by her office to say hello, she greeted me warmly and congratulated me on my having earned my Ph. D. She immediately invited me to join a group of women psychologists, who met for dinner on a monthly basis. And, in a relatively short time, Linda convinced me to accept a job at UNF as an adjunct professor of psychology. I thoroughly enjoyed teaching both undergraduate and graduate students at UNF for the 5 years I lived in Jacksonville. I worked full time at the hospital, then, on 1 or 2 nights each week, I taught a variety of classes at UNF. During this time, Linda and I became friends, and we socialized with our significant others, our academic colleagues, and our families. She was almost 20 years older than me, but as women social psychologists, we had lots in common. One thing we definitely had in common was our intellectual approach to life. Linda earned her Ph. D. at the University of Florida, while I earned mine many years later at Florida State University. Not once did we discuss the football rivalry between our schools; not once! We had no time for sports related trivialities in our relationship. Instead, we co-authored numerous articles together, for publication in professional, scientific journals; we co-presented at many psychology conferences across the country; and we collaborated on many other projects in the 30 plus years we knew one another. David and I even went to Spain to visit Linda, when she was there on sabbatical. Sadly, Linda passed away in 2017, after a short, but courageous, battle with cancer. I miss my friend, colleague, and the wonderful person who was Dr. Linda Foley. Thanks for the memories, Linda.
Linda Foley was one of the first psychologists to whom Melissa introduced me because they were so close. Though I don’t like talking about her in the past tense, I will say she was kind, smart, positive and committed to her work as a teacher, researcher, and administrator. We had lots of fun together over the years traveling to psychology conferences – surprising or not, psychologists do know how to have fun! But, my fondest memories of Linda involved her asking me to take photographs for the social psychology textbook she wrote. One of Linda’s interest areas was psychology and the law, therefore, a good portion of the book focused on such topics. Melissa and I also proof read that textbook. It was an honor and a very positive experience to see it come to life; I learned much along the way. But, the fun part for me was accompanying Linda to one of Florida’s most high security prisons to photograph prison life on the inside. After security searches and instructions, she and I were taken for a tour of the facility behind the barbed wire. We spent the better part of a day doing this, both in the outside yard areas as well as inside the cell blocks, from low to high security. I recently looked at some of those photos. The access we had surprised me. Some of the photos were of solitary cells with solid steel doors, with an opening only large enough for food trays. Inmates reached out through those openings as their only way of being seen by us. We also got to see the prison work shops – where brooms were being made, and where license plates were stamped out by big, loud machines. It was an adventure. Linda had a drive for adventure, such as when she lived and taught in Spain. But, she traveled frequently and explored the world – another inspiration for us. And, after retirement, she ventured into the world of writing fiction novels. No surprise that her genre was psychologically oriented crime mysteries (Melissa is featured in one of them, by name!). I have her books on my bookcase shelves today. Hard to believe she’s been gone a while now, but gone is not forgotten.
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