IN MEMORIAM

Bidding a sad farewell to two vibrant members of our NCTA community–Ann M. Crowe and Paul Lambert.

Ann M. Crowe, 1928-2013
NCTA member Ann Crowe passed away on November 6, 2013. After joining the association in November of 1986, Ann was a stalwart director on the NCTA board for several terms and in appreciation was named a lifetime honorary member of the association in 1999. Longtime members will remember Ann and her husband George, an architect originally from New Zealand, from NCTA social events past.

Born in Schenectady, New York, to Scottish immigrant parents, her family returned to Scotland in 1932; after marrying in 1955, Ann and George moved to the USA. Ann’s life was interwoven with the love of family, community, the Arts, French literature, and sharing her knowledge through teaching. She taught French at the Oakland and Albany Adult Schools, translated two Pierre Marivaux plays, and was active in Beaux Esprits and Les Amis de la Culture Française, as well as the League of Women Voters of Berkeley, serving a term as President (1980-82).

Among her professional accomplishments, Ann held ATA Certification, French into English (1987), an MA in French from the University of Glasgow, Scotland (1950), a Diplôme Supérieur de Français des Affaires from the Chamber of Commerce of Paris (1986), and a California Teaching Credential in French. She also coauthored, with Maureen Wesolowski, the National Textbook Company’s Dictionary of French Faux Pas, 1994.

Thank you Ann for helping to build NCTA.

Paul Lambert, 1978-2014
In the early hours of February 12, our friend, colleague, and newly elected board member, Paul Lambert, was tragically killed in an accident in San Francisco. He was 35 years old.

Paul hailed from Northern Ireland, and studied interpreting and translating at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland. After graduating, he freelanced for a number of years in Scotland before moving to Madrid to join a small translation agency as a project manager. He then moved to KPMG, where he worked as an in-house financial translator before moving to the Bay Area in 2011 to join microfinance non-profit, Kiva. He was a Volunteer Coordinator for Kiva’s Review and Translation Program in charge of coordinating seven Russian, French, and Spanish teams.

Paul spoke fluent French, Spanish, and Russian and was a great supporter of NCTA. He attended many of our general meetings and several workshops, and contributed an article to Translorial—a review of last year’s game localization workshop—which appears in this issue.

When we were looking for a new secretary for our Board, Paul immediately came to mind. That he would be supremely efficient was a given. But there was something very special about Paul. His warm, caring personality, ever-jovial nature, and genuine helpfulness made a huge impression on us from the moment we first met him. We knew that he would be a terrific fellow-board member and were jubilant when he accepted to run for the position of secretary. We greatly regret not having the opportunity to work side by side with him at NCTA.

We join his family and friends in deeply mourning his loss.

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
so dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

(Nothing Gold Can Stay—Robert Frost)