Remembering Tom Malloy
We remember Tom with fondness and gratitude for his many contributions to our educational mission.
Tom as remembered by Jake Jensen:
Tom Malloy was a member of the University of Utah Psychology faculty for more than 40 years and over that time his research interests and teaching evolved with the changes in his field. He received his PhD from the University of New Mexico in 1969, studying human perception under Henry Ellis. He was hired by the University of Utah in 1968 and discovered his love of teaching. He and Professor Stuart Proctor published some of the early research in the new field of cognitive-behavior therapy. He continued his interest in perception and expanded his research using dynamic system models, working with Professor Jonathan Butner.
He was committed to undergraduate education and was pivotal in the development of a number of innovative approaches. Early in his career, he created an alternative degree program and through the years, he worked with the English Department in its writing program and offered a number of Psychology courses that provided opportunities for students to experience high-level discovery and paradigm shifts in their own thinking. He received numerous teaching awards including the University of Utah University Professor award, the State of Utah Professor of the Year and the Calvin S. and JeNeal N Hatch Teaching Award. By far his favorite awards were the ones he received from the Psychology undergraduates for having the best sense of humor. He taught in the graduate student statistics series for most of his career and had the gratitude of many of those students for making a difficult subject understandable.
He saw the potential of online education early in the history of the internet. In the late 1990’s, he and Gary Jake Jensen developed a fully online course in Introductory Statistics. The course had interactive features that were unique at the time and parts of it are still in use. The engaging and interactive format set a high standard that has helped motivate the department’s continuing commitment to online education. Tom and Jake also created web-based dynamical systems simulation tools for research and many other interactive tools to support teaching and learning.
Tom retired in 2011 but at the time of his death in 2016 he still missed teaching. He found interaction with his students very rewarding. Through his teaching, he had an impact on many lives and had lifelong friendships with people who were originally his students.
Tom as remembered by Jonathan Butner:
Thomas Malloy passed away suddenly on August 4, 2016. As a researcher and Psychologist at the University of Utah, he was committed to the study and implications of dynamical systems theory and complexity with particular attention to the concepts of knowing, creativity, and perception. In the later years of his career, Tom became active in the examination and development of techniques for studying NK Boolean systems as a way to move past the systems metaphor. His goal was to ‘see’ and ‘hear’ systems crossing the chasm between our interactions with the world and the mathematical models with which he experimented.
Tom came to systems theory late in his career. As a lover of the work of Bateson and Kaufman, he embraced notions of thinking about cognition in a world without randomness. He was passionate about his beliefs, embracing the idea of teaching systems theory to graduates and undergraduates using the natural synchrony that would occur through drum circles and the ease with which emergence could be constructed in simple network models. It was an experience students either loved or hated. But students always walked away from his classes with a different frame of mind than they had entered.
To me, Tom provided warmth for my wacky ideas when I was just starting out as junior faculty in a department that had small pockets of systems influences. We would brainstorm ideas, argue about concepts, spend hours theorizing, and generally loving our academic partnership. He introduced me to the Society for Chaos Theory in which he had been active for many years, bridging the divide between systems math and systems as a metaphor. I was lucky enough to co-teach graduate courses with Tom and co-publish many of our fruitful ideas. When he retired as an associate professor after 43 years of service, we continued to keep in contact. I will miss him dearly. (see obituary below)
Thomas Eugene Malloy
Jun. 27, 1942 ~ Aug. 4, 2016
Tom passed away unexpectedly on August 4. He was born in Chicago, Illinois to Thomas
J. and Berneice Mitchell Malloy, the youngest of three children. Tom grew up in Lisle,
Illinois, and earned his bachelor's degree at the University of San Francisco, and
his PhD in Psychology from the University of New Mexico. He was an associate professor
of Psychology at the University of Utah for 43 years.
Tom was a teacher in every aspect of his life, always sparking the imagination of his students, his family, and his friends. He mentored and inspired everyone to explore their creativity, their intellects, and their best selves.
Tom is survived by his wife and partner of 42 years, Christine Mitchell, his first wife and mother of his three children, Diane Nordstrom (John); his children Beth Malloy (Jeff Clapp), Suzanne Malloy (Jake Jensen), and Tom; three grandchildren, Sarah Sovinsky (Brett Burningham),Thomas B. Malloy, and Katie Jensen: and one great granddaughter, Charlotte Burningham. He will be sorely missed by his two sisters, Barbara Gauger and Kathleen Kruse, as well as many adoring brothers and sisters-in-law, nieces, and nephews.
A celebration of Tom's life will be held Tuesday, August 9, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., at 1571 Michigan, in Salt Lake City. Friends and family are welcome to join this celebration, tie-dye invited. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to HEAL Utah.
Published in Salt Lake Tribune from Aug. 7 to Aug. 9, 2016
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/saltlaketribune/obituary.aspx?pid=180981429