Editing Dian Fossey (section)

==Early life==
Fossey was born in [[San Francisco]], [[California]], the daughter of Hazel ([[née]] Kidd), a fashion model, and George Edward Fossey III, a real estate agent and business owner.<ref name=WareBraukman/><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/102593177/marriage-of-fossey-kidd/|title=Marriage of Fossey|newspaper=Reno Gazette-Journal |date=August 29, 1928|pages=4|via=newspapers.com}}</ref> Her parents divorced when she was six.<ref name=innominate>{{cite web|url=http://www.innominatesociety.com/Articles/Karisoke%20Revisited.htm|title=Karisoke Revisited – A Study of Dian Fossey|publisher=innominatesociety.com|access-date=December 15, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191118080845/http://www.innominatesociety.com/Articles/Karisoke%20Revisited.htm|archive-date=November 18, 2019}}</ref> Her mother remarried the following year, to businessman Richard Price. Her father tried to keep in contact, but her mother discouraged it, and all contact was subsequently lost.<ref name=webster>{{cite web|url=http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/fossey.html|title=Dian Fossey|publisher=Webster.edu|access-date=December 14, 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091205143418/http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/fossey.html|archive-date=December 5, 2009}}</ref> Fossey's stepfather, Richard Price, never treated her as his own child. He would not allow Fossey to sit at the dining room table with him or her mother during dinner.<ref name="farley">Mowat, Farley. ''Woman in the Mists: The Story of Dian Fossey and the Mountain Gorillas of Africa''. New York, NY: Warner Books, 1987.</ref> A man adhering to strict discipline, Richard Price offered Fossey little to no emotional support.<ref>Washam, Cynthia. "Fossey, Dian." Environmental Encyclopedia. 4th ed. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 2011. 701–703. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. February 28, 2013.</ref> Although, by 1950, Richard and Hazel would relocate with Dian to Marin County, the same county where her father George Fossey, now married to Mrs. Gladys Bove ([[née]] Kohler), resided.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/256950264:62308|title=Dian Fassey in the 1950 United States Federal Census|website=www.ancestry.com |url-access=subscription|access-date=May 27, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/256925688:62308|title=George Fossey in the 1950 United States Federal Census|website=www.ancestry.com |url-access=subscription |access-date=May 27, 2022}}</ref> (George and Gladys would divorce by 1960. His third and final marriage would be to Kathryn Smith around 1959. Kathryn has mistakenly been cited as Dian's mother over the years.)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.familysearch.org/search/ark:/61903/1:1:VGRB-NWP|title=Kathryn S Fossey in the California Death Index, 1940-1997 |website=www.familysearch.org |url-access=registration |access-date=May 27, 2022}}</ref>

Struggling with personal insecurity, Fossey turned to animals as a way to gain acceptance.<ref>"Fossey, Dian." The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives. Ed. Kenneth T. Jackson, Karen Markoe, and Arnold Markoe. Vol. 1: 1981–1985. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998. 294–296. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. February 28, 2013.</ref> Her love for animals began with her first pet goldfish and continued throughout her life.<ref name="farley" /> At age six, she began riding horses, earning a letter from her school; by her college graduation in 1954, Fossey had established herself as an [[Equestrianism|equestrienne]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dian Fossey Biography |url=https://gorillafund.org/who-we-are/dian-fossey/dian-fossey-bio/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230915134739/https://gorillafund.org/who-we-are/dian-fossey/dian-fossey-bio/ |archive-date=September 15, 2023 |access-date=July 17, 2024 |website=Dian Fossey |language=en-US}}</ref>

===Education and medical career===
Fossey attended [[Lowell High School (San Francisco)|Lowell High School]]. Following the guidance of her stepfather, she enrolled in a business course at the [[College of Marin]] in San Francisco. However, spending her summer on a ranch in [[Montana]] at age 19 rekindled her love of animals, and she enrolled in a pre-[[veterinary]] course in biology at the [[University of California, Davis]]. In defiance of her stepfather's wishes for her to attend a business school, Fossey decided to spend her professional life working with animals. Consequently, Fossey's parents failed to give her any substantial financial support in her adult life.<ref name="farley" /> She supported herself by working as a clerk at a [[White Front]] department store, doing other clerking and laboratory work, and laboring as a [[machinist]] in a factory.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}}

Although Fossey had always been an exemplary student, she had difficulty with [[chemistry]] and [[physics]], and failed her second year of the program. She transferred to [[San Jose State University|San Jose State College]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=McPherson |first=Angie |date=January 18, 2014 |orig-date=January 18, 2014 |title=Zoologist Dian Fossey: A Storied Life With Gorillas |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/140116-dian-fossey-google-doodle-national-geographic-gorillas-birthday |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240717130726/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/140116-dian-fossey-google-doodle-national-geographic-gorillas-birthday |archive-date=July 17, 2024 |access-date=November 5, 2024 |website=Adventure |language=en}}</ref> where she became a member of [[Kappa Alpha Theta]] [[sorority]] and studied [[occupational therapy]], receiving her [[bachelor's degree]] in 1954.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://heritage.kappaalphatheta.org/page/notablethetas|title=Notable Thetas – Heritage – Kappa Alpha Theta|access-date=March 29, 2016|archive-date=October 19, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019001306/http://heritage.kappaalphatheta.org/page/notablethetas|url-status=live}}</ref> Fossey began her career in occupational therapy.<ref>{{Cite web |last=McPherson |first=Angie |date=January 18, 2014 |orig-date=January 18, 2014 |title=Zoologist Dian Fossey: A Storied Life With Gorillas |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/140116-dian-fossey-google-doodle-national-geographic-gorillas-birthday |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240213085517/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/140116-dian-fossey-google-doodle-national-geographic-gorillas-birthday |archive-date=February 13, 2024 |access-date=July 17, 2024 |website=National Geographic |language=en}}</ref> She interned at hospitals in California and worked with [[tuberculosis]] patients.<ref name=GFDFL>{{cite web|url=http://gorillafund.org/page.aspx?pid=380|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100620175006/http://gorillafund.org/Page.aspx?pid=380|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 20, 2010|title=Dian Fossey – Biography|publisher=The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International|access-date=January 16, 2013}}</ref> Fossey had become a prizewinning [[Equestrianism|equestrian]], which drew her to [[Kentucky]] in 1955, and a year later took a job as an occupational therapist at the [[Kosair Crippled Children's Hospital]] in [[Louisville, Kentucky|Louisville]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Washam|first=Cynthia|title=Environmental Encyclopedia|year=2011|location=Detroit|publisher=[[Gale (publisher)|Gale]]|pages=701–703|edition=4th}}</ref>

Her shy and reserved personality helped her to work well with the children at the hospital.<ref>{{cite book|last=Jackson|first=Kenneth|title=The Scribener Encyclopedia|year=1998|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|location=New York|pages=294–296}}</ref> Fossey became close to her coworker Mary White "Gaynee" Henry, secretary to the hospital's chief administrator and the wife of one of the doctors, Michael J. Henry. The Henrys invited Fossey to join them on their family farm, where she worked with livestock daily and experienced the inclusive family atmosphere that had been missing for most of her life.<ref name=webster/><ref>{{cite book|title=The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives|year=1998|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|location=New York|page=294|editor1=Kenneth T. Jackson |editor2=Karen Markoe |editor3=Arnold Markoe }}</ref> During her free time she pursued her love of horses.<ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of World Biography|year=2004|location=Detroit|publisher=[[Gale (publisher)|Gale]]|pages=23–24|edition=2nd}}</ref>