It is with deep sadness that Parapsychology Foundation marks the passing of Rhea A. White (Hon) Ph.D. on Saturday, February 24th, 2007 at her home in New Bern, North Carolina at the age of 75.

Her contributions to parapsychology are as extensive as are the details of her illustrious career. Perhaps her lasting legacy — apart from the tomes of literature she amassed and catalogued, her four books and numerous articles and papers — are the countless numbers of students she touched and the lasting friendships she formed. She was always willing and able to lend an ear and offer a perspective or research avenue not yet considered.

A long time PF grantee and conference participant as well as moderator and guiding light for PF’s International Conference held in Dublin, Ireland, “Women and Parapsychology,” Rhea was an integral part of the PF family. She experienced first-hand the personalities of all three generations of Garrett and Coly women who administered PF as well as that of PF’s late Administrative Secretary, Robert R. Coly. Both my mother, PF’s current President, Eileen Coly, and I have valued greatly our association with Rhea on so many levels.

Rhea shared her thoughts and experiences of PF’s founder, Eileen Garrett, in the Helix edition of Garrett’s Adventures in the Supernormal and had just finished work on an Foreward and Afterward to the soon-to-be-released Helix Edition of Garrett’s Awareness, which Rhea considered essentially an in-depth exceptional human experience autobiography.

On a personal note, Rhea, over the years, I hope saw me “mature” and was always ready to offer good counsel and friendship as I attempted to navigate a channel for continued and future PF directives as well as listened to all matters of my personal ups and downs not to mention all our conversations on the love and care of cats!

Rhea White will be sorely missed by all manner of people she came in contact with, all of whom have been enriched in many ways by knowing her. And, through Rhea, humankind’s understanding of the complexities of human experience has been greatly expanded.

Dr. Stevenson, as Dr. Alvarado’s contribution to the PF Lyceum’s Weblog Series illustrates, had a impressive impact on parapsychology and academia at large. He influenced and inspired many students to more closely investigate the mysteries raised by psychic functioning and reincarnation specifically. The PF provided early support for his research in 1961 when, at the request of Eileen J. Garrett, he took a trip to India and Sri Lanka to investigate reincarnation memories in children, a trip which spawned a lifetime of research. Dr. Stevenson graciously acknowledged this support in the “Remembrances” section within Garrett’s Adventures in the Supernormal when, referring to Garrett, he stated: “ Later I obtained much other funding; but I remain deeply indebted to Eileen for encouraging me and for making possible my first endeavors to study the children who claim to remember previous lives. Without her I could not have even started.”

The PF is jusitfiably very proud of its long-time and much-valued association with Dr. Stevenson. Appreciating the complex personality of our founder as he did, Dr. Stevenson, over the years, was also friend and colleague to myself and my mother, Eileen Coly, as we have carried on the work of the Foundation. For me, personally, he holds a revered spot in my heart not only because he was the essence of a consumate gentleman, but because, as a measure of his kindness, when he fully expected to attend a luncheon with Garrett, she was called away and he found himself sharing lunch in an elegant French restaurant with me, Garrett’s at-the-time thirteen-year-old granddaughter! Dr. Stevenson most patiently and kindly explained his theories while never expressing disappointment or impatience with the situation, going on to refer often to our first luncheon as I grew to maturity. Parapsychology and the PF family is greatly diminished by his loss.