ON BEHALF OF BARBARA BYRNE - Without question, I was both devastated and stunned in receiving the horrendous news from Michael and Ype last week concerning Fons, my friend and colleague for going on 25 years now! I first met Fons in 1995 at the International Test Commission (ITC) meeting in Athens, Greece at which time it was my first as a member of the ITC Council. I was totally fascinated with Fons’ work in the area of cross-cultural psychology and over the years, found myself constantly intrigued by how I might be able to apply my own specialty area of structural equation modeling within a cross-cultural perspective. From Day 1, Fons became my number one go-to person in answering my many questions concerning cross-cultural issues! In addition to being a brilliant scholar and educator, I found Fons to be an exceptionally kind and thoughtful human being – never too busy to answer a question, to discuss an idea, or to explain a complex cross-cultural issue in down-to-earth terms. Indeed, I consider myself to have been so fortunate in having published several articles with Fons as my co-author! One of my fondest memories will forever be that of my few weeks spent at Tilburg University in 2007 (a) working with Fons in trying to resolve problems associated with testing for invariance across numerous cultural groups, and (b) sharing both an office and ideas with Ype. To me, Fons was truly a very special person and now, when I read and reference his many papers and books, it will forever remind me of my great fortune in having known and shared ideas with this outstanding, yet forever humble icon in cross-cultural psychology!
ON BEHALF OF BARBARA BYRNE - Without question, I was both devastated and stunned in receiving the horrendous news from Michael and Ype last week concerning Fons, my friend and colleague for going on 25 years now! I first met Fons in 1995 at the International Test Commission (ITC) meeting in Athens, Greece at which time it was my first as a member of the ITC Council. I was totally fascinated with Fons’ work in the area of cross-cultural psychology and over the years, found myself constantly intrigued by how I might be able to apply my own specialty area of structural equation modeling within a cross-cultural perspective. From Day 1, Fons became my number one go-to person in answering my many questions concerning cross-cultural issues! In addition to being a brilliant scholar and educator, I found Fons to be an exceptionally kind and thoughtful human being – never too busy to answer a question, to discuss an idea, or to explain a complex cross-cultural issue in down-to-earth terms. Indeed, I consider myself to have been so fortunate in having published several articles with Fons as my co-author! One of my fondest memories will forever be that of my few weeks spent at Tilburg University in 2007 (a) working with Fons in trying to resolve problems associated with testing for invariance across numerous cultural groups, and (b) sharing both an office and ideas with Ype. To me, Fons was truly a very special person and now, when I read and reference his many papers and books, it will forever remind me of my great fortune in having known and shared ideas with this outstanding, yet forever humble icon in cross-cultural psychology!
