Geraldine LaRocque Dr. Geraldine LaRocque, most recently from Carefree, Arizona, passed away on February 7, 2016, at the Valley of the Sun Hospice in Scottsdale. She was born in Minnesota on February 28, 1926, and was preceded in death by her loving parents, June and Rodney LaRocque. Dr. LaRocque devoted much of her life to teaching. After earning two Ph. D. degrees from Columbia and Stanford Universities, respectively, she taught at institutions in New York, California, and Illinois. Geri spent the last eighteen years of her professorial career at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa, until her retirement in 1991 as Professor Emeritus. She was active in the National Council of Teachers of English and devoted endless energy to mentoring university students who were being certified to teach high school English. Although a highly respected and knowledgeable academician, Geri was also a caring and outgoing individual who spent much of her retirement traveling, reading, and fostering friendships with people from many walks of life. She remained active with her sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma, and was a patron of the arts wherever she lived, at one time serving as a docent at the Heard Museum in Phoenix. Geri was also an avid admirer of Abraham Lincoln, collecting numerous books and art work in tribute to him. Sometimes called "Dr. Geri" by family and friends, she is lovingly remembered as an independent, talented woman whose very presence exuded her intense dedication to education and educators. Interestingly, she is also remembered as a woman who was ahead of her time intellectually but maintained an abiding regard for traditional humanitarian values. Dr. Geraldine LaRocque was interred with her much-loved parents at Mountain View Cemetery in Mesa, Arizona. Memorial donations may be made to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, or in Scottsdale, Arizona. Published in The Arizona Republic on March 13, 2016; downloaded April 4, 2016.
