Linda Gambrell was a gift to the reading community.  As MaryEllen said, she was a friend and a mentor. I met Linda at an IRA meeting at least 40 years ago.  I didn't know anyone at the time.  I think we were on a committee together and that is how I got to know her. She was so gracious and lovely.  She introduced me to all the leaders in the field.  We presented together, and I loved listening to her speak in her charming southern manner.

She was beautiful to look at and beautiful to listen to.  I'll never forget how she would say, "Teachers need to bless the book and then the children will read it."

 She did so much in her career with research, teaching, and professional organization work. She is referenced all the time.  Her work on motivation was outstanding and so important. 

 I remember one IRA in Orlando, Florida.  IRA had rented out Disneyland. Linda had never been. We had the best time running around to all the well known rides and didn't even have to wait online.  I took her to It's a Small World first and then the Pirates of the Carribean and on and on.  We had a wonderful time.  

We shared our lives talking about her son and my daughter. She was at Stephanie's wedding.  I just got the album to look for her photo. Then we had the grandchildren to talk about.  She moved to Arizona to be close to her son and his family. 

I learned so much from Linda and she was a wonderful friend and colleague. 

I write this with a great deal of sadness.

Dr. Lesley Mandel Morrow

Sad to learn of Linda's passing.  A committed scholar and teacher educator, and a class act as a fellow human being. Hoping someone can share an obituary and/or a family contact who might provide information about ways to honor her memory.   Also, I hope that ILA will publish a piece about her legacy as they have with so many others.  Not sure who to contact there to make sure this happens.

Dr. P. David Pearson

So sad to hear of Linda’s passing. I knew her across our careers like many of us, but I got to know her especially well when she was at the University of Maryland and I at the University of Georgia when UGA and UMD were co-awarded the National Reading Research Center 1992-1997. Linda understood kids and classrooms, could speak to teachers, and conducted important school-based research. And, of course, she mentored many fine PhD students throughout her career at UMD and then Clemson. Our literacy community was fortunate to have her as a colleague and scholar. RIP, Linda.

Dr. James Baumann

I am also so sad to learn about Linda’s death. Even when I don’t see old friends for years I envision them tucked away in a happy space they’ve chosen. This news caused me to lose that envisionment but instead to reflect on so many shared times with Linda talking and laughing about a range of  topics. Her beauty will always remain in her contributions to literacy, which were many and very significant. We have lost quite a leader and a lady.

How sad.  A wonderful colleague.

Dr. Jerry Johns

 I was heartbroken to hear of Linda’s passing.  She was a very dear friend and colleague.  She always joked with me about being the only male colleague who had taken her shoe shopping.  She was elegant in every way as a person, scholar, and leader.  She was kind, but courageous as a leader.  She was one to coin great one-liners in reading like “blessing the book” or marinating students with books.”  I will miss her southern charm, accent, and wit!  She loved many, laughed frequently, and lived beautifully!  She loved her son and moved to AZ to be a grandma!  She loved her brother selflessly as well.  I will miss the light she brought into this world.

Dr. Ray Reutzel

I had the privilege of working with Linda at the University of Maryland for 15 years, and I always thought of her as the quintessential steel magnolia—

Fiercely dedicated to her students, to children, to the idea of research informing practice and the idea of literacy for all. All wrapped in her good graciousness. 

Dr. Peter Afflerbach

I am also so sad to learn about Linda’s death. Even when I don’t see old friends for years, I envision them tucked away in a happy space they’ve chosen. This news caused me to lose that envisionment but instead to reflect on so many shared times with Linda talking and laughing about a range of topics. Her beauty will always remain in her contributions to literacy, which were many and very significant. We have lost quite a leader and a lady.

Dr. Diane Lapp

 From the beginning of her career, Linda’s research, especially her work on motivation and engagement, was original and rigorous. During the cognitive revolution years, Linda’s focus on the affective was unique and refreshing. But my lasting memories of Linda are about more than her research accomplishments. My experience of Linda was of someone who not only studied motivation and engagement, but of a woman who cared about, and enacted, human connection and engagement. She had a way of reaching out to us, of engaging us—not only through her research and teaching, but when she saw us in person or sent an email message. I have images of her at conferences and meetings. I see her moving around the room from person to person, greeting, inquiring, welcoming. I see her walking down a hall with a smile on her face, carrying a bundle of books, and stopping passers-by to say hello. Teachers and administrators knew she cared about them and their students. She inspired classroom change because teachers and administrators considered her to be one of their own. Forty years of Linda’s research findings are enduring testaments to Linda’s academic and pedagogical contributions, but equally importantly, images and memories of her beautiful grace and spirit linger as lessons for us all.

Dr. Jill Fitzgerald

Linda Gambrell was a dear friend for many years, and I have missed our times together. We met at conferences each year and the conversations and laughter carried over to each new meeting as though there were no pauses in between. And, with Pat Koskinen, our conversations often went long into the night and of course, both Pat and I agreed that Linda really did look like Meryl Streep. Linda was so proud of her husband, Bub, and her son and grandson and was excited about the move to Arizona.

Beyond appreciating Linda’s warmth and caring friendship, I respected her scholarship and her strong leadership of professional organizations. Her multiple investigations, quite detailed and conducted over time and with different populations in classrooms, advanced the importance of motivation and its impact on students’ engagement and text comprehension. Making connections to students’ interests brought much needed attention and responsiveness to the diversity of our students and their literacy histories, interests, and capabilities. Linda’s Best Practices text, with Leslie Morrow, has had multiple editions, and each year the list of contributors and collaborators seemed to grow – a testament to the respect Linda and Leslie held for their colleagues. This respect for collaboration and Linda’s quest to understand and make public different perspectives as part of the problem-solving process was a hallmark of her leadership of ALER, LRA, and ILA. She was not a top-down decision maker but rather made visible the importance of learning from our differences.

Linda leaves us with a strong legacy of scholarship, leadership, and the warmth and importance of friendships.

Dr. Vicki Risko

I, too, was shaken to hear of Linda's death.  For years, I had known her as the most gracious of ladies.  Then we were unexpectedly thrown together for a difficult task.  That experience revealed her to be tough, professionally astute and decisive while still maintaining her distinctively gracious ways. While I haven't seen her for years, I have always respected her and enjoyed her.  She will be missed. 

Dr. Gerry Duffy 

Linda Gambrell is a bright light whose contributions to early reading and writing research will live on and inspire classroom teachers, teacher educators, and learners more generally for as long as there is interest in and commitment to motivating and engaging the human mind with its many tentacle-like appendages. As others have written in this outpouring of reflections on Linda as friend, scholar, and leader, she is inspiration personified. 

As a friend, Linda Gambrell could elevate even my best days to a higher level by observing how she cared for others in both public and private spaces. As a scholar, she exuded openness and attention to detail. As a leader, Linda earned my trust by building relationships that lasted and advanced whatever professional organization she represented. Linda, you are missed but never forgotten.

Dr. Donna E. Alvermann

Linda was a wonderful colleague and friend. Along with that grand lady, Lesley Morrow, the three of us would regularly organize symposia at LRA (NRC); great to see two superstars at work; organized, highly professional, and applied to practice.  We could always depend on Linda to wow the audience with her southern charm...How do you make all that statistical mumbo jumbo interesting and fascinating to listen to? she managed with grace and good humor.

Linda and I were co-editors of RRQ for almost 7 years...she was always there--some of you know that this job is really tough at times, but she always had my back...i could depend on that...at the end of our stint, she told me that she was ill, but in all that time together, and throughout our many conversations, i never knew it.  she was a brave, and elegant person, and i will miss her. 

Dr. Susan Neuman

So sad to hear of Linda’s passing.  I certainly echo all the sentiments already expressed.    She was a kind, generous, and caring person who was also a quintessential scholar.  I will always remember her smile and how she could light up a room with her presence.  

 Dr. Timothy Rasinski

Such sad news. Linda was two spots ahead of me as president of what was then the International Reading Association (IRA). l learned a great deal from observing her leadership skills in action. She combined charm and grace with focus and effectiveness.

Linda had a marvelous sense of humor and knew how to put people at ease. At one of the annual meetings, she slid open the door of her closet, revealing a neatly hung row of suits, all the same color. “My students are calling me the lady in beige,” she said. “I canʻt imagine why.”

 A marvelous leader and scholar, Linda was a person of principle, always generous in sharing her expertise and insights. She could provide a frank assessment without being unkind. She was a colleague I greatly admired. 

Dr.  Kathy Au

I am also so sad to learn about Linda’s death. Even when I don’t see old friends for years I envision them tucked away in a happy space they’ve chosen. This news caused me to lose that envisionment but instead to reflect on so many shared times with Linda talking and laughing about a range of  topics. Her beauty will always remain in her contributions to literacy, which were many and very significant. We have lost quite a leader and a lady.

Dr. Diane Lapp

Like Jim Baumann, I got to know Linda through UGA’s collaboration with U of Maryland.  When I realized she was ready to leave Maryland to return closer to her southern roots, as Dept Head, I tried to recruit her to UGA.  But, the Dean wouldn’t work to find the money for a new hire.

So, she went to Clemson, which might have happened anyway, since that is where she grew up and where, as she told it, fell in love with Bub when she was a young teenager, and he was several years older in the same school.

UGA’s mistake was quickly evident.  Linda was hired as the head of the then School of Education.  Right away, through her personal charm, she brokered a $10 million endowment from Darla Moore in honor of her father Eugene T. Moore, who the College continues to be named after.  (Darla was the first female, along with former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, invited to become members of the iconic Augusta National golf club).

Further, when a position opened up at Clemson, I decided to apply, in large measure because Linda was there, and I was hired.  I had the privilege of being her colleague for 14 years, when in 2017 we both retired (Linda’s decision also influenced mine).  I can fully attest to all of the positive comments and stories shared here about Linda’s personal charm and professional savvy.  What I can add is how those qualities made her a highly successful and well-liked administrator along with being the best colleague one might imagine.

Dr. David Reinking       

Linda Gambrell was a marvelous colleague and an inspiring person. At the University of Maryland, we worked together extensively on reading engagement and motivation. In writing the grant proposal for the National Reading Research Center, I asked Janice Almasi, who was Linda's advisee and my research assistant, for advice. She volunteered that Linda Gambrell was a motivating teacher for children and adults. In the research center, Linda led enlightening studies into literacy engagement. Her articles in the Reading Teacher have reached a generation of aspiring teachers. I am extremely grateful for our relationship and her timeless contributions.

Dr. John Guthrie

For me, Linda Gambrell was a model of what a professional woman in our field could be. She was bright and beautiful, with her heart planted deeply in the classroom, as she focused much of her research on motivating both reading teachers and the children they taught. An exceptional literacy leader, she was strong and fearless, but she also enjoyed a good laugh.  She will be missed.

Dr. MaryEllen Vogt

Pat & I met Linda in 1978 when she came to North Carolina to make a presentation as a substitute for her colleague, Bob Wilson. We soon learned she and Larry (we call him Bub) also had a two-year-old son like we did. Over the years, our families enjoyed many wonderful times together.

They don't come any finer than Linda. She was a consummate professional with determination, organizational skill, and the personal touch in equal measure. Her research on reading motivation made a difference, and she was a master at working with others to mount outstanding IRA Precons and other symposia that were both up-to-date and practical. Most of all, though, Pat and I will miss Linda for being the person she was—joyful and always concerned about other people.

Dr. Jim Cunningham

When I first went down the path leading to service in professional associations with the College Reading Association there was Linda Gambrell serving as President. To this young upstart it was clear that Linda was the consummate leader as she steered CRA ever forward. The same could be said for her services to I.R.A. and N.R.C. Across the years one could not help but come to acknowledge that she was also a first-class scholar and mentor – role model to several generations of future leaders in the field. On top of all these qualities, Linda showed class in everything she did. We are all better members of the profession because of benefitting from the good works of Linda Gambrell.

Dr. Norman A. Stahl