Zella Luria

I was born in New York City to parents starting their second marriages. My mother Dora never learned to read, and worked as a seamstress in a factory. Hyman, my father, was a house painter and a member of the local union. I was one of four children.

After graduating from Brooklyn College in 1944, I moved to Bloomington, Indiana for graduate school. There I met and married Salvador ("Salva") Luria. Four years later, my son Dan arrived.

We spent one year in Cold Springs Harbor on Long Island. I worked as a social worker, followed by a summer working with Ernst Mayr on drosophila.

As a postdoctoral fellow in Urbana, Illinois, I studied with three greats in psychology: Hobart Mowrer, Charles Osgood, and J. McVhunt. I learned to do therapy; and with Osgood, I actually did research.

First, I worked on schools of psychotherapy. Then I was asked to review the so-called three faces of Eve, the soon-to-be-famous multiple personality case. Then came another case. Suddenly, I had become an expert on multiply personality disorder when I did not even believe in it.

My first tenure-track position was at Tufts University as an assistant professor, where I was soon promoted to associate professor. I was popular with the students because of my outspoken views on feminism and strong opposition to the Vietnam War. In my classes, we explored psycholinguists, Chomsky's theory, and gender roles.

During the summers, we vacationed in Cold Spring Harbor, living in lab quarters with water leaking from the lights and floors sloping toward the windows. There, Salva and Dan spent time building a hydroplane with a motor. Dan spent many hours in the harbor enjoying his sleek, hand-built boat.

In 1964, after buying land on McGregor Road, we built our summer home across the street from my brother, and we started spending summers in Woods Hole.

During the next several long, hot summers, I wrote, "The Psychology of Human Sexuality" and the textbook "Human Sexuality." Both publications where widely accepted and became popular.

My favorite memories of Woods Hole are at Stony Beach, where I would spend afternoons with Salva. (Later, we would switch to Nobska, where Salva liked to wade in the tidal pools and Dan, when he visited, to ride waves.)

After many years of teaching, I retired at age 78 and spent more of my time reading books that I shared with my friend, Liz Davis. Liz didn't read novels, so we would trade science books. Writing this makes me miss her even more dearly.