Diane Papalia Zappa

She earned her PhD in lifespan developmental psychology in 1971. She went on to teach human development courses to thousands of students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, attaining the rank of tenured full professor of child and family studies at the age of 30. While in Madison, she and co-author Sally Wendkos Olds wrote A Child’s World (now in its thirteenth edition) and Human Development (in its fourteenth edition).

 In 1986, while still a professor in Madison, she met Frank Zappa’s younger brother, Bob, who was the marketing manager for one of her books. They married in 2015.