Edward F. Diener, PhD

Dear Carol, We woke up with the saddening news that Ed passed away. We grieve for the big loss to his loved ones, his friends, psychology and humanity. Ed has been a significant person in our lives, as he is in many others. We will remember forever his big smile, big heart and legacy. With deepest sympathy! 

Dear Carol, Indeed, Ed lives in the hearts of so many people around the world. The sad news about Ed's passing has been widely circulated in China via social media. Attached is one of the postings (the first part is in Chinese and it has an English translation in the second part) on a popular WeChat site. Ed's impact on the world is huge! Hugs,

Carol—News just reached us that you lost your beloved Ed. I can’t imagine the sadness you and your family are going through. Ed was a giant to the world and to his family and all his friends—and the loss of a giant can be a little harder to process than others. Our deepest sympathies and warmest love and blessings are with you all. Ed was such an interesting guy to me in so many way—so successful and driven and yet so comfortable with himself—literally every other superstar academic I have known—always makes the rest of the room sort of wear his/her ego and their edginess and dissatisfactions. Not Ed. It always blew me away how Ed just didn’t need that. He was like being with a lifetime friend from the first time I met him—such a soul. He always felt like a family member was in the office. He contributed so much to our work(Gallup’s) and to our professional development—his DNA in the very character of the Gallup tribe—his work is part of the fabric of who we are and what we do. Ed truly lives on at Gallup and he will in eternity. He was a founding father of the science of life-experience, happiness and wellbeing and made the world a better place because of it—We will always keep his work alive and booming here. I can’t imagine how much you and your family loved him—I know how much we did. God bless you and your whole family today—and God Bless Ed on a quick trip to heaven where he has a bunch of friends ready to greet him and I suppose get back to work on happiness and wellbeing. Life really is a blink—what a man—what a life. Love and blessings from our Gallup family, my family and me—jim

Dear Carol, I am sure you are experiencing a deluge of praise and affection for Ed, and wanted to add my drop. I last heard from Ed in late February, when we exchanged notes about a pesky paper that someone had written. Ed was his usual clear-eyed and well-balanced self in the discussion of the professional matter, and he added a personal comment was so typical Ed that I must cite it “We are doing great despite the fact that I have cancer. My chemotherapy round one is now finished and I am starting to feel better. Hopefully, I will now have clear sailing” Later he added another unsurprising remark “Carol and I have been together since age 16, and so have been very lucky on that front.” Indeed, it always appeared that Ed had led a perfect life – only too short. I have known Ed for about 25 years, in which I never encountered him in an angry or sad mood. In his terms, Ed had plenty of positive affect, very little negative affect and he was very satisfied with his life. It was always a pleasure (slightly mixed with envy) to see a man who was perfectly put together. I was also the beneficiary of Ed’s patience with my somewhat erratic behavior and of his generosity – three carefully chosen bottles when I got the Nobel. It was good to know that there are people like that walking the earth. Not many of them, but a few. And now one less. I am very sad. And I can only imagine your pride and your grief. Ed’s love for you and his family shone through event though he rarely spoke of himself. My condolences, and also my very best to you and yours

Hi Robert and Carol and Marissa and Mary Beth, I was so sorry to hear about Ed’s passing. The world has gotten a lot smaller now. I always think of Ed as a giant and him as making everything bigger. He was so full of life and energy and fun and the unexpected. I can only imagine how much of a treat it was to have him as your father and as your life partner/husband/willing accomplice. Ed just made everything seem more buoyant. He was, of course, a charmer. I remember my undergraduates raving about his psych 250 lectures. They thought he was hilarious – from the moment he introduced himself and told them how to pronounce his name (DEE-ner, as in the kids used to call him “Diener the Wiener” when he was growing up) all the way through to the end of his lectures. He used to pack in close to 500 people. I don’t know what the latest figures are, but I think we get 150 in that class now when he apparently used to have them rocking in the aisles with 3 times as many. He charmed me the first time I met him. My first memories were that he was the only person at Illinois who was wearing a tie, yet he could do perfect renditions of every key scene in Caddyshack (“big hitter, the Lama”). Ed might have been wearing a tie, but he never lost those qualities that can make adolescent boyhood joyous. (I’m sure he did lose the qualities that can make adolescent boyhood irritating or worse to everyone else). Diener parties out at the lake are some of my best memories from my early years at Illinois – inner tubing behind the boat (he took it easy on me), spam eating contests, walking on glass, Ed cutting his foot and spraying blood out with every pulse of his heart (I wasn’t there for that one, but somehow I can clearly imagine it), etc. And I remember the party not too long before my wedding where Robert greeted me at the door with some wooden dowel through his nose, we ate cockroaches, we took Jeff Mogil’s pain test, Justin Kruger got in an ice bath naked, and a variety of “tests of manhood” or something like that. (I believe this predated Frank Costanza’s “feats of strength” for Festivus, and tests of manhood should not be confused with the “Boyfriend Quiz” given to suitors to the Diener home. I remember asking Marissa if she minded that boyfriends might have been embarrassed by having to take the quiz. I think she said something like, “No, not really. If they couldn’t take the quiz, then they weren’t right for us” – or something like that). (I do remember that potential boyfriends got a point on the quiz for considering the priesthood. I’m not sure if Ed mentioned that when you met the Pope. I can only imagine how big of a charitable contribution you have to make to get an audience like that. But I wouldn’t know – Ed never talked about the charitable causes that I’m sure you and he generously supported. Nor did he ever get holier than thou in his moral convictions – though I know they were quite strong). When I became a parent, I got to understand another aspect of Ed: He was so proud of his children and grandchildren! I wasn’t sure if the Museum of Accomplishments of his Children or Grandchildren (or whatever he called it) was a metaphor or an actual place he had built (see the Diener Grandchildren museum below). It is impossible to think of Ed without thinking of the phrase “Family Man.” You all figured so much in his stories and in the basic way he looked at life, whether it was Carol’s compassion or her inventiveness or Robert’s lessons that by dumpster diving or asking the cops for money so you could get out of town, you really could travel across the US with no money. Related to the last point, I think of Ed and the Diener family in general as redefining the possible in small ways and large: Study happiness? That’s crazy. Collect data among the Amish, in the artic circle, or the poorest neighborhoods in urban India – why don’t you just use the subject pool? Make yourself indispensable to the psych department without a tenure-track slot – how do you do that? Take the family through the Amazon and have them blow curare darts? Get some of the world’s leaders to talk about gross national happiness – highly unlikely. Get economists to do so – impossible. Run a major tomato empire and have an incredibly productive research agenda and be a great teacher and mentor – that’s way more hours than there are in a week. Have a great family on top of that – WTF? Be so accomplished and yet so down to earth – not impossible, but rare. Etc. Ed’s passing is a huge loss to the world, to everyone who knew him, and especially to those who knew him best and who he loved the most. I think of you all frequently – I was just thinking of Ed and his psych 250 class yesterday. And a little bit ago, when I was cleaning up stuff around my office, I came across the attached Diener update. The envelope is marked 2011 from Salt Lake City. I’ll take a picture of the photos and attach them below. You have a copy of them, I’m sure, but sorting through everything is the last thing you probably need to do right now. They bring a smile to my face when I see them, and while this day is unquestionably sad, they may – or may someday – bring a smile to yours. My thoughts are with Ed and you all today.

Carol, So sorry to hear of Ed’s passing. He was a wonderful person who was just a pleasure to be around. Our thoughts and prayers are with you. Jay and Carol Znaniecki.

Dear Carol, Robert, and family, You wouldn't know me but I wanted to share my gratitude for your husband and father's gracious gift to me. You know how he made his articles freely available. As a student struggling to complete a dissertation with little training in metrics or knowledgable support, I devoured Ed's articles and asked if I could tweek his Flourishing Scale for use with teens. He not only allowed me this privilege but told me he wanted me to use my name only on the Youth Flourishing Scale. What a generous man. I wish I could have met Ed to personally thank him. Robert, thank you for your expert help with the dissertation. Mark

My condolences Carol. We met only once at the economics of well-being conference in Park City a few years ago. The world knows Ed as a leader in academic research on well-being. He truly was path-breaking and supportive of so many others. But, what resonates with me now is the impression that for anyone that had the fortune to spend even a few minutes with him, Ed was a teacher of how to live life.

Dear Carol and Family, I am so sorry to hear about Ed's passing and send you all my deepest sympathy. I was a PhD student at Illinois from 1993-1999 and fondly recall the three classes I took with Ed, as well as the one in which I was Ed's TA. Ed taught me so much about so many things - from the basic academics (research methods, SWB, when to use "which" versus "that" when writing!) to how to live a good life, how to value what I have, love what I have, and get the most out of life. Throughout my career, I have always tried to emulate Ed's incredible teaching style - he was truly the master at this and always a role model. I still use brilliant examples from his classes in my own now many years later. He was a constant source of encouragement to me throughout graduate school and again later on when we reconnected at professional conferences over the years. I will always remember his kindness, his wonderful sense of humor, his brilliance, his deep commitment to others, parties at your house in Champaign and on Lake Mattoon, walking on broken glass, SPAM and SPAM awards, and so much more. I loved Ed, greatly valued all he gave to me at Illinois and beyond, and am a much better person and academic because of his influences. He will be very greatly missed - indeed the world is much smaller without him - but the influence of his work and the abundance of memories he created will last forever. Linda Isbell

Carol and the family. We are very sad to hear about Ed's passing. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of you. Ed was very outgoing and had a zeal for life. He contributed so much to the world of psychology. He was a great emcee at social events and all who attended, had a lot of fun.

Dear Diener family, Please accept our heartfelt condolences for Ed's passing. We got to know Ed after Jackie joined the Psychology Department at the U. He was a dear colleague and an exemplary scholar, and someone who could make any conversation fun and interesting. We fondly remember the Diener's Psych Department pool party, as well as our conversations with Ed and Carol at the department picnics over the years. The Diener family is in our thoughts, and we are very sorry for your profound loss. -Jackie Chen & Andreas Malmendier

Dear Carol and family, the news of Ed's passing hit me very hard. He was one of the kindest persons I ever met in academia, and he will be missed dearly. I am sending you my sincere condolences.