KEY, Mary Ritchie 1924-2003

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born March 19, 1924, in Julian, CA; died September 5, 2003, in Tustin, CA. Linguist, educator, and author. Key was a scholar of native Mexican and South American languages and a longtime professor at the University of California at Irvine. After graduating from Westmont College in Los Angeles, she worked as a riveter during World War II. After the war, she joined the Wycliffe Bible Translators and traveled to Mexico, where she helped put together a vocabulary book and reader for speakers of Nahuatl. In 1954, she moved to the Bolivian village of Tumichucua, setting up a library and doing research on native languages. Key earned her master's degree from the University of Texas in 1960, and, after returning to the United States in 1962 to live permanently, completed a Ph.D. there the next year. Joining the faculty at Chapman College in Orange, California, she taught linguistics at that college until 1966, when she became one of the first professors hired by the newly founded University of California at Irvine. Key spent the remainder of her academic career at UC Irvine, chairing the linguistics program from 1969 to 1971 and retiring in 1991. An adept researcher, Key was fascinated by non-European languages, contributing significantly to this field of linguistics. One of her greatest accomplishments, however, came after she left teaching, when she began compiling the "Intercontinental Dictionary Series." She edited the first several volumes of the ambitious project before passing away, but the project has continued since her death. Key was also a prolific author and editor, publishing over a dozen scholarly works, including Comparative Tacanan Phonology: With Cavinena Phonology and Notes on Pano-Tacanan Relationship (1968), Male/Female Language (1975), The Grouping of South American Indian Languages (1979), Polynesian and American Linguistic Connections (1984), and Language Change in South American Indian Languages (1991). She was also the founder of the newsletter Nonverbal Components of Communication, which she edited from 1972 to 1976.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Grand Rapids Press (Grand Rapids, MI), September 25, 2003, p. B10.

Los Angeles Times, September 22, 2003, p. B11.