EDITORIAL

Tom Hixon was a giant in his chosen field of speech science. That he and his work were respected internationally is news to no one. That he was so closely held, and so revered by his students, is perhaps less well known. When I asked his longtime collaborator and life partner, Jenny Hoit, to oversee and edit this issue of Seminars, I knew that the number of such persons interested in contributing would be great, but well as I knew him, I was not prepared for the diversity of those he influenced, not just in terms of his science, but in its clinical application. In fact, I will keep this editorial short due to the length of the biosketches that are included here.

I worked both for Tom and with Tom in my years on the faculty of the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences at the University of Arizona, where he was a force almost like no other. He was tough and tender, ever more knowledgeable than those around him, even when he appeared to be caught far out of his recognized fields of expertise. My favorite image of Tom is when he raised his hand at a departmental colloquium, with a tiny pussycat smile on his face and his eyes absolutely twinkling. His victim (let's face it, often me), would rise to the bait—“Yes, Dr. Hixon?”—and then there would be a question, sincerely in need of answering, but possibly never before so succinctly formed that it left his victim (again, often me) totally speechless, and thus to ponder about it for the next few months or so until a light dawned.

Thomas J. Hixon was a scholar, and a fine and respected colleague. Indeed, one of the truly huge figures in 20th-century speech science. I am thankful to have known and learned from him.