Obituary of Dr. Josephine Cecilia Naidoo

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Passed away peacefully on Thursday, October 24^th, 2024 at age 92. Predeceased by her husband of 50 years, Dr. James (‘Jim’) David Leslie, she is survived by her three children and their spouses, Dr. Kenneth Leslie and Shannon Reynolds, Dr. Christina Leslie and Vijay Iyer, and Dr. Michèle Leslie and Patrick Meagher, and five grandchildren, Journey, Phoenix, Jayanti, Padma and Priya. Josephine was the eldest of ten children and is predeceased by her siblings David, Laura, Marianne, Raymond and Selvum, and survived by Joan, Carol, Cyril and Rajan.

Josie, daughter of Joseph Naidoo and Christina Lawrence, grew up in a prominent Catholic Indian family in Durban, South Africa. Her maternal grandfather, Vincent Lawrence, was personal secretary to Mahatma Gandhi during his early years as a lawyer in Durban, and the family was active in the country’s social justice movement. Josie’s birth story is famous in family lore. She was born on a leap-day, February 29^th, 1932. Her mother Christina was stricken with malaria during the pregnancy, and Josie was born two months premature and weighed only 2 pounds. Her maternal grandmother, Josephine Lawrence, saved her life by keeping her wrapped in cotton wool in a shoe box, feeding her powdered milk with a sterilized eye dropper and rubbing her down each day with olive oil.

Josie went on to flourish, excelling academically at St. Anthony’s Indian School and the Durban Indian Girls’ High School, where she was head prefect and valedictorian. She attended the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, earning her Bachelor of Science degree in 1952, although she faced numerous restrictions as a non-white student under Apartheid. After teaching at the Merebank Indian School for three years, she accepted a lectureship in psychology at Pius XII University College in Roma, Basutoland, now the National University of Lesotho. She was only twenty-four years old and the only Indian faculty member. While at Roma, Josie worked as an external student towards an honours degree in psychology. She applied to become a member of the (then all-white) Psychological Society of South Africa, but was rebuffed due to race. Decades later, she learned the organization had split over this decision, and she was awarded the PsySSA Fellowship Award in 2018 for her contributions to psychology in South Africa.

In 1959, Josie won an American scholarship that brought her to the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, where she completed her Ph.D. in Cross-Cultural Psychology with Dr. Harry Triandis. While at Illinois she met her husband, James Leslie, a Physics Ph.D. student from Canada, in a cafeteria line. They were both wearing their respective school blazers, Jim’s from University of Toronto and Josie’s from Wits. As Josie would say, they came from opposite ends of the Earth, and their love transcended the ethnic and cultural barriers of the time. They were married on September 19^th, 1964. Josie moved with Jim to Waterloo, Ontario, where she worked first as a lecturer at St. Jerome’s College and later as a professor of psychology for almost thirty years at Wilfrid Laurier University (1969-97).

Josie had a lifelong commitment to social and racial justice that permeated her work and extensive community involvement. While at Laurier, Josie’s research focused on multiculturalism, race relations, women of non-Western origins, the South Asian diaspora, and adaptation of mental health to ethnic minorities. Her research articles were widely published in refereed journals and book chapters. Josie won numerous awards for her community work and research. She was very involved in the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP) and served as Secretary General from 1994-96. She travelled extensively and presented at conferences around the world.

One of the most stirring experiences of Josie’s life was to serve as an election observer in the first democratic elections in South Africa while on sabbatical leave from WLU in 1993-94. She was based at the University of Durban-Westville and experienced the “de-racialization” of that institution, formerly segregated during the Apartheid era, remarking: “To witness the crumbling of an evil political system and ideology, and experience the triumph of the people, leaves an indelible memory.”

Josie spent the last years of her life at Clair Hills Retirement Residence in Waterloo, where she was active in community life, attending music performances and Catholic mass. The family would like to thank all the staff at Clair Hills and Paramed, who helped with her care during COVID and through her final days.

A Funeral Service will take place at the Erb & Good Family Funeral Home, 171 King Street South, Waterloo at 10:30am on Tuesday October 29^th, 2024. A livestream and recording of the service will be available on the funeral home’s website. Reception to follow. There will be a Celebration of Life at the University of Waterloo Faculty Club in the summer of 2025, date to be announced by email and in the Record. Condolences for the family and donations to Doctors Without Borders may be arranged through www.erbgood.com.