UAlberta Tribute: In Memorium Terrance M. Nearey

Terrance M. Nearey (1946-2021), died in Edmonton, Alberta, on 18 December 2021. He was a Professor of Linguistics, specializing in phonetics in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Alberta for 37 years (1976-2014).

9 March 2022

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Terrance M. Nearey (1946-2021), died in Edmonton, Alberta, on 18 December 2021. He was a Professor of Linguistics, specializing in phonetics in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Alberta for 37 years (1976-2014). He was born in Neptune, New Jersey on 8 November 1946, and he received his B.A. in Linguistics from the University of Wisconsin in 1969. In 1976, he completed his Ph.D. at the University of Connecticut under the direction of Philip Lieberman. He started his career at the University of Alberta in 1976 and was promoted to full professor in 1994.  In 2014, he retired from the University of Alberta and was granted Emeritus status. He was a fellow of the Acoustical Society of America and his research and extensive contributions to his field were celebrated at a special session of the 172nd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America conference in Honolulu in 2016.

He taught introductory linguistics, phonetics, acoustic phonetics, statistics, historical linguistics, field methods, and was well-liked by UG and graduate students alike. His humour and compassion resonated with his students, who demonstrated their appreciation for him with novelty gifts and joke awards and trophies they crafted in his honour.  His academic legacy continues in the careers of many of his students, including: Murray Munro (SFU), Peter Assman (UT-Dallas), Shaunnie Shammass (VP Linguistic Innovation at SpeakingPal), Michael Kiefte (Dalhousie), Ronald Thomson (Brock), Geoffrey Stewart Morrison (Aston U), Santiago Barreda (UC-Davis).

Terry’s sense of humour ranged from silly to playful to absurd, and encompassed making up nonsensical songs, juggling his kids’ toys, and making zany sound effects with his mouth. He enjoyed devising ad-hoc gadgets to solve small household problems and loved to show off his cobbled-together inventions made from coat hangers, clothes pins, and rubber bands. He loved basketball, hiking, the ocean, mountains, conducting research, astronomy, science, murder mysteries, hot sauce, tofu, National Public Radio, Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, Mongo Santamaría, and the Brandenburg concertos.

He is survived by Beatrice, his wife of 52 years, their daughter Siobhan (Eugene McNamer), sons Brendan and Kenneth, and by former students and cherished colleagues who came to be considered extended family.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Campus Food Bank or the Department of Linguistics travel bursary for students attending conferences.