Esther Goody was a Fellow of New Hall (later Murray Edwards) from 1966 until she became an Emeritus Fellow in 1999. During this lifelong association with the College, Esther was a College Lecturer in Social Anthropology; and the Director of Studies in Archaeology & Anthropology (1966-1972), in Social & Political Sciences (1966 – 1971) and in Part II Social Anthropology (1975 – 1982); she was also a Tutor (1975 – 1978). Several generations of New Hall students will remember Esther’s enthusiasm for anthropology, her intellectual fierceness and love for debate, her constant encouragement to challenge assumptions and think outside the box, but also her ability to make difficult concepts accessible, to use her formidable ethnographic knowledge to give life and relevance to abstract ideas, always reminding students that at the core of anthropology are real, live people who can and deserve to be understood. Esther also taught those of us who aspired to become anthropologists to approach both theory and ethnography with empathy, imagination and care for the people we worked with, and that nothing is uninteresting about people and their lives. All of us will also remember Esther’s personal warmth, her informality and directness, and her extraordinary commitment to supporting and encouraging students at all stages in their career, including by offering funds to help them with research. As a Fellow Emerita Esther remained committed to the College, joining into important discussions, attending events and always keen to meet with students and Fellows in Arch and Anth, SPS/PPS and HSPS and hear about the course and the latest ideas and debates.