by Anitra Budd

Professor Emerita Pauline Boss, family social science, speaks in a measured tone. Her gestures are economical, her words carefully chosen, and her reasoning elegantly logical. Boss might be considered an austere academic, were it not for the messy, complex, and vitally human nature of her work: ambiguous loss.

Ambiguous loss is a field that studies unresolved grief. Those who have lost relatives in natural disasters, people caring for spouses with dementia, and parents of missing children all have a place in Boss’s research. “All loss is touched with ambiguity,” she says. “Much of my recent work has been with brain-injured veterans returning from Iraq.”

Boss has pioneered the study of ambiguous loss since 1973, two years before earning a Ph.D. in child development and family studies from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Her deep interest in the subject may be a reaction to her rather rigid upbringing. “I come from a very Midwestern, Calvinist background, and it’s perhaps because of this that I’m drawn toward an area that isn’t precise,” she explains.

Not only imprecise, but potentially emotionally draining—Boss has worked on the frontlines of some of the greatest tragedies of our time, including Hurricane Katrina and the September 11, 2001, attacks. But rather than succumb to sadness, Boss is rejuvenated by her work. “For me, recharging comes from seeing the usefulness of it. I judge the worth of my work by its usability.”

In the days immediately following September 11, Boss found herself energized by the events unfolding around her. “When you’re in the ivory tower, you work very slowly and carefully. In 9/11, I had to come up with a family intervention program in a few days,” she says. “It threw me into the real world to say, ‘I have to take a risk here.’”

Wayne Caron, assistant professor of family social science and Boss’s former Ph.D. advisee remarks, “Pauline’s work has always exemplified the joining of theory, research, and practice.”

In addition to the countless number of people who’ve been helped by her research, Boss has received several prestigious awards, including a 2002 award from the National Council on Family Relations for her excellence in research and theory. Today, at 70 years old, she is still taking risks. Despite retiring from the Department of Family Social Science in 2005 after 24 years of teaching, she maintains a packed schedule of writing, speaking engagements, and a private psychotherapy practice. Her most recent book, Loss, Trauma, and Resilience: Therapeutic Work with Ambiguous Loss (W.W. Norton, 2006), is based on the work she continues to do with families of the psychologically missing, such as those who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease or other chronic mental illnesses.

So when, if ever, does Boss take a break? Her marriage to Dudley Riggs, a well-known comedian and founder of Minneapolis’s Brave New Workshop comedy troupe, might offer some clues. “There’s a lot of imagination and intelligence in our home,” Boss says. “It’s so wonderful after I’ve been away to come home to a great and very supportive family, and a husband who’s constantly taking me to wild and imaginative places.”

PHOTO: David Hansen