Eunice Crocker Gilmore, a musicologist who was the first woman to be named a full-time instructor in the Department of Music, died of cancer Dec. 20 in North Hill Health Center in Needham. She was 83.

Born near Rochester, N.Y., Gilmore was raised in Milton. In 1936, she graduated magna cum laude from Radcliffe College, where she was the recipient of the Captain Jonathan Fay Prize, which goes to the graduating senior named most likely to succeed.

She became the first woman to be named a full-time instructor in music in the Department of Music at Radciffe, a position she held for two years.

She earned a doctorate in musicology at Harvard in 1943. Her dissertation was on the Italian canzona -- short musical pieces popular in Italy. She later wrote the entry on canzona for the Harvard Dictionary of Music.

Later, Gilmore was a parenting specialist who advocated enhancing children's academic achievement through affection and praise. She coauthored with her husband, Boston University Psychology Professor John V. Gilmore, two books, A More Productive Child (1978) and Give Your Child a Future (1982).

In 1981 the Eunice Crocker Gilmore Fund was established to promote scholarly publications in the Department of Music.

Gilmore leaves a brother, Seth Crocker of Milton; a sister, Martha Boyajian of Strafford, Vt.; and three children, Margaret C. Gilmore and John V. Gilmore Jr., both of Boston, and Martha P. Gilmore of San Diego, Calif.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 1, at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Wellesley Hills, 309 Washington St., Wellesley Hills.