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Glenda died suddenly in Pennsylvania from a brain haemorrhage on June 23, 1996. She had just turned 37. Glenda Laws was an Associate Professor of Geography at the Pennsylvania State University. She received an MA in 1985 and a PHD in 1987 from McMaster University. Glenda was born in Cabramatta, Australia. She was the wife of her good friend and colleague, Stephen Matthews, of the Population Research Institute at the Pennsylvania State University. Glenda was very close to her family in Australia: her mother, Margaret, and her father, the late Stanley Laws, and her brothers, Roger, Terry, Bruce, and Warren Laws.
Glenda gained a First Class Honours degree from the University of Sydney in 1981. During her final year, Glenda met Michael Dear, on sabbatical at Sydney from McMaster University. Michael obviously recognized in Glenda a talented, enthusiastic scholar, with an incredibly bright future. He convinced her to move to Canada to undertake her graduate studies under his supervision. Her MA and PHD theses explored restructuring the local welfare state, the privatization of community-based residential care facilities, and locational conflicts surrounding group homes for the mentally disabled and homeless. As a senior graduate, Glenda's reputation for scholarship was already growing, and she quickly established herself as a key player in the discipline of human geography. She held several departmental and university scholarships during her time at McMaster, had an active publication record, and presented results of her research at scholarly geographical meetings in both Canada and the United States.
Embedded in much of Glenda's writing was her belief that her work did not stop at the office door and the classroom. As a graduate student, she found time to work as a volunteer with Hamilton's Child and Adolescent Services and the Social Planning and Research Council. When she moved to State College, she acted as a community representative to the Borough Community Development Block Grant Committee.
Her first teaching job took her to York University in Toronto. There she devoted much time and energy to undergraduate teaching. Her commitment and enthusiasm for undergraduate instruction became...