Editorial
The text first appeared in the April 2015 edition of the EL Gazette.

Remembering Gwyneth Fox

Michael Rundell, UK

Gwyneth Fox’s sudden death - so soon after her retirement - came as a tremendous shock to everyone who knew her. I well remember staggering off a plane in Tokyo a few years ago, exhausted after a 12-hour flight, only to meet Gwyneth at the baggage carousel looking fresh as a daisy and as full of energy as ever. I expected her to live to be at least 100.

When Macmillan was planning its first learner’s dictionary at the end of the 1990s, Gwyneth joined the team at an early stage. It’s a big undertaking to create a new dictionary from scratch, and we were fortunate to have the benefit of Gwyneth’s long experience as a senior editor, and later editorial director, on the Cobuild dictionaries. Her shrewd understanding of the needs and capabilities of advanced learners (and learners aspiring to be advanced) made a positive impact throughout the period when the Macmillan English Dictionary (MED) was being developed. But if anything, Gwyneth made an even bigger contribution once the dictionary was published. She undertook what to most of us would seem a gruelling programme of presentations, spreading the word about MED at conferences, in bookshops, and at teacher-training events all over the world. A TEFL person to her fingertips, with huge experience as a teacher, teacher-trainer, and examiner, Gwyneth had a remarkable ability to connect with teachers and students everywhere. We could not have had a better champion for MED, and she did more than anyone to put our dictionary firmly on the map.

Gwyneth will be sadly missed and fondly remembered - not only by those of us who worked with her, but by her many friends in the English-teaching community, and by the countless teachers and students worldwide who had the pleasure of going to her talks and meeting her in person.

www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/gwyneth-fox-remembered