A Farewell to Nim Chimpsky

[Keith E. Nelson]

Laura,  A very nice, appropriate gesture.  Thanks Nimbo for all,
including your appearance in Children's Language Vol. 2.   Keith
Nelson, Prof. Psychology, Penn State U.


At 9:56 AM -0500 3/15/00, Brian MacWhinney wrote:
>Dear colleagues:
>
>Nim Chimpsky died on Friday, March 10, 2000, at the age of 26 from a
>heart attack at the Black Beauty Reserve in Tyler, Texas. Many of you
>will recall that he was the subject of the Columbia University language
>experiment in the mid-1970s. I thought a lot about whether I should use
>this forum to announce his death as well as whether anyone would care to
>know this fact. In the end, I hoped that it would be alright to mark his
>death in this way, as it is the passing of a life, albeit a chimpanzee's
>life, and one that--whether or not he ever intended it--contributed
>greatly to our knowledge of how human children learn. Good bye Nimbo.
>Thank you.
>
>Prof. Laura Ann Petitto
>Department of Psychology
>McGill University