ZELLA LURIA

LURIA--Zella.

Psychologist Who Worked on Gender Roles. Zella Luria (nee Hurwitz) passed away June 10 at her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is survived by her son Dan and daughter-in law Janet Loesche of Michigan; by her grandchildren Nick and Anna Luria; by her brother Jerard Hurwitz of New York; and by her nieces Deena and Jodie Hurwitz. She was preceded in death by her husband, Salvador Luria, a molecular biologist who shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1969. Zella was raised in the Bronx. She earned a BA from Brooklyn College and a PhD from Indiana University. In 1951, she and her husband relocated to Urbana, Illinois, where she taught and did research at the University there. In 1958, they moved to the Boston area, where Zella began a 40-year career at Tufts University. There, she did path-breaking work on the social construction of gender roles and became an expert on human sexuality. Zella was a prize-winning teacher at Tufts, and in the 1970s was an important mentor to many younger feminists and president of the New England Psychological Association. Co-author of the textbook Human Sexuality and of 40 refereed journal articles, she also worked as a clinician on the multiple personality case on which the film The Three Faces of Eve was based. In her post-retirement years, she evaluated political asylum seekers for the Center for Constitutional Rights. In her final 15 years, she faced significant health issues. She was fortunate to have been looked after by her good friend Howard Block and by a team of devoted caregivers. She was also fortunate to have enjoyed a 50-year friendship with the psychologist and artist Brenda Steinberg. No service or memorial is planned. Friends may make a contribution in her name by donating at www.ccrjustice.org Remembrances may be shared with her son at: dluria@the-center.org.