Young children everywhere — along with their families and caregivers — lost one of their best friends and most passionate champions this week with the unexpected death of our dear colleague Ron Lally. Ron’s commitment to ensuring that infants, toddlers, and other pre-K children receive the quality of early care and education they need for later learning and success was the throughline in a career that spanned more than 50 years – 42 of them at WestEd.

Known professionally as J. Ronald Lally and widely considered a pioneer in the field of infant/toddler development and care, Ron earned his doctorate in education psychology, with a focus on infancy, from University of Florida in 1968. In Florida, he also directed one of the first home visiting programs for infants in the United States.

After earning a post-doctoral certificate for infant testing from London’s Child Development Research Centre in London, Ron became a professor at Syracuse University where he chaired its Department of Child and Family Studies and directed its Family Development Research Program. That program included a renowned and ground-breaking longitudinal study of the impact of early intervention on low-income children. The intervention at the heart of that study focused on developing child and family functioning through home visits, parent education, and early care and education in an infant/toddler center and preschool program. As part of the study, Ron oversaw the operation of one of the first federally funded infant care centers in the United States, an experience that previewed his lifelong focus on making sure that formal childcare and education provide our youngest population with the kinds of relationships and environment needed to nurture healthy development. While at Syracuse, he also became a founding board member of Zero to Three, a leading national resource on the first three years of life that works to strengthen the critical roles of professionals, policymakers, and parents in giving all children the best possible start.

In the late-1970s, Ron came west to join the young research and development organization that became WestEd. Working out of a small office building on the Sausalito, California waterfront, he took charge of and continued to build and direct our Center for Child and Family Studies. At the time of his passing, Ron had been serving as co-director of the center with his longtime friend and colleague Peter Mangione. Through the center, Ron developed and for more than 30 years directed the Program for Infant and Toddler Caregivers (PITC). PITC began as a California-specific training for providers of early care and education but has since been used across the nation and internationally; the program has continued to be updated over time in order to reflect new knowledge and today it is being transformed for online delivery in order to have broader reach.

Ron’s commitment to high-quality care and education for young children deepened over the years as a growing body of brain research pointed to the critical influence of children’s earliest experiences on their healthy brain development. That knowledge, coupled with Ron’s sensitivity to the challenging and stressful circumstances experienced by so many families, galvanized his push to make sure that early childhood caregivers and educators are enabled to support those in their care.

Ron recognized the importance of having public policy that reflects what we know about young children’s developmental needs. In 2013, he took a significant step toward issuing a call to action in this direction when he wrote and published, For Our Babies: Ending the Invisible Neglect of America’s Infants.

The passion and sense of urgency that drove Ron throughout the years is reflected in the team he and Peter have built over the years — a team that will continue to build on Ron’s legacy. It’s important to note that this drive never undercut the care with which he treated his own team and other colleagues at WestEd and throughout the field. “Nicest guy,” “mentor,” and “inspiration” lead the list of common descriptors for Ron.

Ron left us far too early. We will miss him as a colleague and a friend, and we know we are not alone. We send our deepest sympathy to his family and to his many friends across the country and abroad.