Oct. 11, 2006--The following memorial tribute was presented by Bob Hampel, professor of education, at the Oct. 9, 2006, General Faculty Meeting:

Sylvia Farnham-Diggory, 77, H. Rodney Sharp Professor Emeritus, died on May 30, 2005, at her house in Nederland, Colo.

In 1976, Farnham-Diggory became the first female chaired professor at the University of Delaware, where she taught educational psychology in the College of Education until her retirement in 1992. At Delaware, she also founded and directed the Academic Services Assistance Program, one of the first university centers to help learning disabled college students.

Born in Roanoke, Va., in 1927, Farnham-Diggory earned her B.A. at the University of Chicago in 1946 (after two years) and her Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania (after three years) in 1959. She was an actress in New York City until 1952, including a nationwide tour as Uta Hagen's understudy. After raising two sons, she joined the faculty of Carnegie-Mellon University, where she was the first woman to earn tenure in the Department of Psychology.

Well-known as a pioneer in the field of cognitive psychology, Farnham-Diggory was the author of Information Processing in Children (Academic Press, 1972), Learning Disabilities (Harvard University Press, 1978), Schooling (Harvard, 1990), Cognitive Processes in Education (Harper Collins, 1992), and several dozen articles, book chapters and monographs.

As our colleague, she was an inspiring model of how the worlds of theory and practice could be bridged. For Farnham, it was never an either/or choice. She knew her work here could enrich children's lives in classrooms everywhere, and it did.