Lillian Troll honored as mentor

Div. 20 award goes to a mentor of researchers.

'She would just glow as you talked, and if something you said struck her fancy, her eyes would sparkle,' says Victoria Bedford, PhD, of Lillian Troll, PhD, a psychologist being recognized for her mentorship of young researchers.

Troll is the winner of a mentoring award given by APA?s Div. 20 (Adult Development and Aging) and the Retirement Research Foundation (RRF). 'She would listen and encourage you,' says Bedford. 'It was very peer-like. There was no hierarchy in it.'

Troll could also be critical, though, says Bedford, a University of Indianapolis faculty member, who was a doctoral student of Troll?s at Rutgers University. 'She was tough. She never said you were good, because she always wanted you to try something else.'

At APA?s Annual Convention last month, Div. 20 bestowed on Troll its new Mentorship in Aging Award, given to senior faculty who aid the careers of psychology students. The selection committee chose Troll from 14 nominees. All nominees were outstanding, but the committee selected Troll for the breadth and depth of her influence, says Elizabeth Stine-Morrow, PhD, of the University of New Hampshire, a coordinator of the award. Troll?s style of mentoring ?a combination of nurturing and challenge?has produced a large number of 'intellectual progeny,'who have themselves begun contributing to the field, says Stine-Morrow.

Since 1993, RRF and Div. 20 have run an awards program to fund promising student research. Because mentors play a key role in cultivating that research, John dos Santos, PhD, of RRF?s board of directors, urged Stine-Morrow and Robin West, PhD, of the University of Florida, to petition RRF for an additional $5,000 mentorship award. The new award honors mentors for 'moving students into the discipline,' says dos Santos.

Despite getting a late start?Troll received a doctoral degree when she was 51?she?s become a pioneer of family research, says Bedford. Likewise, Troll has urged her students to rigorously pursue any research topic that interests them. 'I tried to help them find something that inspired them,' says Troll, who at 83 is still an active researcher and adjunct faculty member at the University of California?San Francisco.

The 'Lillian fests' that her former students hold each year at national conferences are evidence that they?ve been inspired. Over dinner with Troll, they initiate new scholars into the area of family research, and 'Lillian?s mentoring continues,' says Bedford.

?Bridget Murray