By Nadia White
Camera Staff Writer
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Leigh Minturn followed her spirit, and it led her to the corners
of the
Earth, the homes of strangers and the height of her profession.
A pioneering professor of social psychology and a member of
the University
of Colorado faculty for more than 25 years, Minturn, 71, died
Sunday along
with all other passengers and crew aboard EgyptAir Flight 990.
"She was a pioneer. She was an explorer. She was uncompromising
in
demanding excellence of herself and others. She was always looking
for
adventure, she really loved to travel," recalled her friend
and colleague
Shelley Calisher.
Professor Theresa Hernandez worked in the office next to Minturn's at CU.
"She was a really good mentor for me, as a woman academic.
She instilled in
you not to give up. She never gave up. She was one of the original
pushing
against the glass ceiling," Hernandez said.
Minturn graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1949 and earned
her M.A.
and Ph.D. from Radcliffe College by 1953. She taught at CU from
1967 until
she retired in 1994.
Minturn's field work focused on the lives of women and children
in an
Indian village, Khalapur. She first visited Khalapur in 1955.
She followed
the same families a generation later and reported on the changes
in
tradition, health and women's autonomy that occurred in the intervening
years. Those findings are told in her 1993 book "Sita's Daughters:
Coming
Out of Purdah."
In Boulder, Minturn was known for the parties she threw for
her graduate
students. She was part of the effort to build the Dushanbe Teahouse.
Calisher said Minturn was excited about visiting Egypt for
a second time,
and about a side trip to the Jordanian city Petra.
"That's one of the saddest things about it, she didn't
get to Petra. She
lived to go to new places," Calisher said.
Minturn was married briefly to University of Illinois professor
Harry
Triandis. Friends say she had no family in Boulder. Funeral service
arrangements have not yet been made.
November 2, 1999
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