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Mrs. Judy Gibson (BA 1972)

     For Judy Gibson (BA 1972), balancing academic interests and family has always been a challenge. She was inspired by her mother, widowed at the age of 26, who raised her two small daughters singlehandedly and returned to graduate school in middle age. She became an assistant professor of marine biology at McGill. Both daughters look to her as their idol.

     Judy entered UW in 1970 to complete coursework for her degree at McGill, which was incomplete due to an illness during her final semester in 1963. Judy began the English MA program in the fall of 1972, pleased that Professor Walter Martin had agreed to be her thesis supervisor. They agreed that Judy would do a thesis on "Myth and Symbol in Joseph Conrad's novel Lord Jim, and other works set in the Malay Archipelago." In her final semester of coursework for her MA, Judy owed a final essay in each of four graduate courses, having interrupted her studies to type her husband's doctoral thesis. She had completed the course on Bibliography and Indexing (which proved a useful preparation for her later editing work). In 1973 Judy moved with her family to Massachusetts, intending to resume her studies at a later date.

     She kept in touch with Prof. Martin for a number of years, and he encouraged her research on "The Identity of the Heads on Stakes", a new interpretation of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Judy gave a colloquium presentation on the subject in February 1992 at Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland, where she and her family moved in 1978. She didn't resume her graduate studies following the birth of her second child in 1975 and responsibilities towards elderly family members as their caregiver.

     Judy fondly remembers the intelligence, kindness, humour, and accessibility of UWaterloo professors. She enjoyed them all. She writes that Dr. Jack Gray's enthusiasm inspired her to become a much better student, and Professor Martin's guidance encouraged her to become a careful researcher.

     In 1978 the Gibson family moved to St. John's, Newfoundland with Caroline, 14, and Mary Jane, 3 1/2, who was born in the US. When Mary Jane started school, Judy began to edit for a local publishing company in St. John's, drawing on her experience as a freelance editor since the 1960's.

     She has written and co-authored four books. In 1989 she was hired as a sessional instructor by the Faculty of English at Memorial University for several semesters. Concerning her colloquium presentation on Conrad in 1992 Judy says ruefully, "Dr. George Storey at MUN, and Professor Martin at UW, encouraged me to publish it, but as happened so many times in my academic life, I had to put it on hold!"

     In 1998, Judy retired from freelance editing to become a full-time independent scholar. She went to England to research the identity of the anonymous author of two Romantic Period novels, working at the British Library, Dr. Williams's Library, the Catholic Library near Euston, and the Public Records Office. Her search was successful and she delivered a colloquium presentation on her work to faculty members at Memorial University in April, 2002. She considers this work her 'magnum opus' and hopes to publish it, having been encouraged to do so in London when she visited a number of publishers.

     Judy hopes to be a kidney donor for her husband, who is presently on dialysis. If possible, she intends to publish her Conrad paper and a book on her search for the author of Truth and Elizabeth Evanshaw in the near future.