First Memories of Ann The first time I remember seeing Ann Watts Pailliotet was at a meeting of the National Reading Conference Field Council. What sticks in my memory is Ann’s utter vivaciousness and unselfconsciousness at that meeting. When she laughed, everyone looked her way because she laughed loudly, with everything she had. She was too busy reacting or thinking or feeling to care about a “correct” image. What you saw was what you got. And what a lot that was! Funny, frank, fearless, and brilliant. Like most everyone who met Ann, I felt like I had known her forever. Dana Grisham A meeting for coffee at the end of a long day at the National Reading Conference. Anxiously hoping that this person would be a good fit for our Reading Online editorial team. Knowing that we needed someone special to lead the New Literacies department. An hour later, tremendous relief and excitement. This passionate, funny, intelligent, and generous woman -- Ann Watts Pailliotet -- would be a perfect choice for the editorship. And she promised to be a dear friend, as well. Bridget Dalton

Rest in Peace A friend, a colleague, and a fellow media warrior. I remember Ann and my memory cannot fade. I remember her personality, her work, her vibrancy, her integrity, and her sense of humor. For the ten years I knew Ann, it was nothing but fun working with her: What a great woman, with incredible energy. I remember her at National Reading Conference media and technology workshops, at International Reading Association conventions, and through Reading Online. We chatted over the phone and e-mail, we debated, we laughed, we taught together via teleconferencing, and we wrote together. Intermediality was our vision and mission. In her very short years in academia, Ann left indelible marks on the map: a trail of impressive publications, articles, books, and a legacy of critical media advocacy. Our reunion was planned for May, this year in San Francisco at the IRA convention, after she had recovered from her back surgery. Ann has left a big hole in my heart, and she did not prepare me for her passing. Totally unexpected. I am inexpressibly saddened and will miss her immensely. Ladi Semali

In Memoriam To reflect on Ann Watts Pailliotet is to reflect on beginnings and endings. I had the privilege of helping Ann usher in her academic career; I served as chair of her dissertation committee and advised her during her early years of career planning. At the end of her life, I had the delight of watching Ann ascend the ladder of scholarly influence, touching the hearts and minds of students and literacy researchers alike. Between the beginning and the ending, Ann exemplified the complete triad: intelligence, passion, and dedication. She possessed a mind that always enlarged and refined -- and seldom repeated. She learned new ideas quickly, and possessed the ability both to synthesize and to analyze. She had an extremely rich understanding of current issues in literacy education and research, imagination, and a strong sense of ethics. In this regard, she was forever integrating the questions of “What has been?” and “What is?” with the questions of “What is possible?” and “What ought to be?” She had the courage to pursue what she believed in, yet she had the flexibility of knowing when better options were needed to replace previous convictions. With her imagination, courage, and a keen intuition, she developed her research and educational agendas. She was particularly gifted in her ability to relate research to practice (and vice versa). For Ann, education was not just a profession; it was an enterprise that mattered deeply. In short, Ann saw education as an endeavor with significant consequences for all who participated in it, willingly or otherwise. As Ann frequently expressed, education is one of the few professions in which our actions today have tremendous consequences for all humans tomorrow. Hence, the issue of what constitutes quality instruction and how this relates to the broader issue of quality of life remained an important concern of Ann’s -- an issue that she encouraged others to champion through understanding of media literacy. As an individual, Ann was a quick study. She was a first-rate scholar who held high criteria and standards for performance -- for others as well as for herself. Moreover, she had a passion to understand things as fully as they could be understood before making decisions; Ann never operated from incomplete data when “complete” data were available. While Ann had the ability to solve problems on her own, her preferred mode was to work as a team member. She relished the opportunity to discuss and debate ideas. She enjoyed working cooperatively in the name of “higher-order pursuits.” She was, above all, a true “people person” who enjoyed being with people, as well as working with people toward a common goal. In the process, she consistently energized whatever group she participated in; she brought a passion to the moment, elevating the mundane to the exciting. Of all people whom I have met in my career, I would say few understand, as well as Ann did, the notion that the whole is greater than the simple sum of the parts. In brief, Ann was one who could transcend her own needs and become fully dedicated to the institutional needs that she had been called to serve. Her level of dedication and loyalty were truly remarkable. In this day and age, when professors tend to optimize their own names and welfare at the expense of their home institution, Ann remained one of those rare individuals for whom the academic institution held great meaning and high value. Ann’s passing is indeed a loss to her students, her friends, and the literacy community at large. While her contributions to improving the world were remarkable for her age and time spent in the field, her potential for going further was enormous. With Ann’s passing, so passes the wonder of this unfathomable potential. And perhaps equally important for me, with her passing, so is transformed a cherished friendship of the present into the wonderment of what might have been. Peter Mosenthal Those of us fortunate to have interacted with Ann in her role as department editor for Reading Online know that she was committed to challenging the literacy education community to think more deeply about the literacies that make a difference in young people’s lives. Ann’s enthusiasm for life, her talent in bringing others into the conversations and controversies surrounding media literacy, and her boundless energy will be missed. At the same time, it is those very qualities that ensure her presence will remain vivid in our memories as we continue to work in an area of literacy education made stronger and more viable as a result of Ann’s pioneering scholarship. Donna Alvermann