HomeMy WebLinkAboutGrider, SylviaTo her colleagues and peers around the world, Sylvia Grider is known as
an expert on spontaneous shrines through her studies of public responses
to such events as Princess Diana's death, the Columbine shootings, the
Oklahoma. City bombing and the TAIVIU bonfire collapse. But her beguuvngs
in the small Texas Panhandle town of Pampa -where she since has been
honored in the school district's "Harvester Hall of Fame" -shaped Sylvia
into the educator and mentor she has been to hundreds of students while
on the faculty at Texas A&M.
Sylvia joined the TAMU faculty in 1976 and taught in the Departments of
English, History, and Anthropology until her retirement in December, 2006.
She has been president of the American and Texas folklore societies, and
a director on the Humanities Texas board. Among her many publications,
two stand out: "Texas Women Writers: A Tradition of Their Own" and "Let's
Hear It: Stories by Texas Women," both co-edited with her good friend, Lou
Rodenberger. She also has used her academic prowess as archivist of histori-
cal documents for St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Bryan. Her avocation is
rescuing box turtles and numuing them for release in the wild.
Sylvia credits several women as being her role models in teaching her
that there are "no limits-a woman can achieve whatever she desires."Those
include the late "Toffy" Osborne, her Girl Scout leader in Pampa; the late
Gardner Osbom, who took the young faculty member "under her wing;"
and the late Marge Hillier, who demonstrated with great wit how a woman
could succeed in business. She also credits Bryan native Catherine Chatham
as modeling how to become more oneself in advancing years. Her 85-year-
old turtle, three-legged Stubby, also has been a role model of wisdom and
patience, Sylvia says.
Through her keen, observing eyes, Sylvia has passed these lessons to
students, young colleagues and friends in the community. It is not on a list
of committees where Sylvia will be found but rather in one-on-0ne or small
group gatherings where people share their hopes and concerns with her
listening ear, her caring heart and her patient soul.
While Sylvia's work in anthropology has been widely received in aca-
demia, it is her more subtle, behind-the-scene gestures as a role model that
no doubt will be her legacy.
Sylvia Grider