We got the sad news this week at UMass of Greg Lamontagne’s passing (http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/bostonglobe/obituary.aspx?n=gregory-a-lamontagne&pid=188375269&). He completed his PhD in 1993, with a dissertation entitled “Syllabification and consonant cooccurrence conditions” (https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9316687/). He became a higher ed administrator – a description of his career up to 2013 can be found here: http://www.ccri.edu/marketing/news_events/2013/august/lamontagne.html.
I have fond memories of Greg when I was just starting out in phonology. He was a helpful guide to some of the mysteries of academia, and a fun guy to hang out with. I was sad to hear we lost him so young – my thoughts there are especially with his family.
I am completely devastated by this news.
Greg was a visiting lecturer at Rutgers in the middle of my time there. He was a willing and more-than-able sounding board for everything I was working on at the time, and he and his family were incredibly kind to me at a time when I really needed it. Like Joe, my thoughts are with Joanna, Rebecca, and Reneé.
When it had become clear to Greg that a job as a phonologist probably wasn’t in the cards for him, he declared to me that he would become a “junior dean” somewhere — and that’s pretty much exactly what he did. I remember thinking that I hoped I’d have the wherewithal to make a career shift like that if and when the time came, and I still hope that for all of our students who may or may not be lucky enough to land the kind of job we’re training them to do.
Further digging (http://www.lynch-cantillon.com/obituary2.php?id=4090) reveals that I shouldn’t have followed the Boston Globe obit in thinking that the spelling of Greg’s younger daughter is “Reneé” — it’s Renée, of course. ><
“Optimality, man!”
I’m sorry to be late in chiming in on this thread. Greg was teaching at the University of Toronto while I was completing my MA there. He was a committee member on my “forum paper” (essentially an MA thesis), and he provided many challenging discussions on that topic for which I am grateful. I remember fondly that Greg wore combat boots to class and performed knee bends on the desk when he got excited about a topic. His enthusiasm for OT was infectious. My condolences go out to his loved ones.
Telkom University