Merge pull request #863 from music-encoding/in-memoriam

Create 2026-02-13-in-memoriam-selfridge.md

Author: martha-thomae

_posts/2026-02-13-in-memoriam-selfridge.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title:  "In Memoriam - Eleanor Selfridge-Field (June 29, 1940 - February 2, 2026)"
+date:   2026-02-13
+categories: update
+---
+
+<img src="/images/memorials/2026/MEC-Florence-2015-eleanor-selfridge-field.jpg" class="img-responsive" width="256" img align="middle" alt="Eleanor Selfridge-Field during keynote at MEC Florence keynote in 2015">
+
+We share with great sadness that **Eleanor Selfridge-Field** passed away on February 2, 2026, at the age of 85. Eleanor served as the Director of the [Center for Computer Assisted Research in the Humanities (CCARH)](https://www.ccarh.org/) at Stanford University, which she cofounded in 1984. Her book, [*Beyond Midi*](https://www.ccarh.org/publications/books/beyondmidi/), published in 1997, one of the first books to document musical codes and data representation, has made a significant impact on the work of the MEI community.
+
+Eleanor was an early supporter of MEI and a founding board member (2015-2019). Her guidance, based on many years of practical application, greatly influenced its development. Her tireless advocacy helped lead to funding opportunities and to acceptance by a wide audience of musicologists, librarians, and other encoding practitioners. Her wisdom will be sorely missed.