Obituary: Robert I. Watson (1909-1980).

Presents an obituary for Robert I. Watson who died on September 15, 1980, in Gainesville, Florida, where he was adjunct professor of psychology at the University of Florida. He had moved to Gainesville in 1975 after retiring from the University of New Hampshire, although the use of the term retire in reference to Bob Watson is clearly inappropriate. If anything, his scholarly productivity only increased after giving up his administrative and faculty responsibilities at New Hampshire. During those last five years he wrote two books, revised a third, and had at least two more in preparation at the time of his death. Bob Watson was an excellent model both in his scholarly and professional pursuits; he will be remembered as one of the founders of the history of psychology movement in the United States and one of the most significant contributors to its literature. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary: Robert W. White (1904-2001).

Memorializes Robert W. White for his major contribution to the holistic personologic tradition in psychology. He also played a signal role in replacing the narrow drive-reduction conception of human motivation characteristic of both neobehaviorism and psychoanalysis with perspectives that include provision for intrinsic motivation with human agency. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary: Maud Merrill James (1888-1978).

Maud Merrill James died at her home on the Stanford University campus on January 15, 1978. She was 90, having been born at Owatonna, Minnesota, April 30, 1888. As a child she lived in an orphanage of which her father was director, and her life's work as a professional psychologist was with children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ralph M. Gibson (1923-2001).

Memorializes R. M. Gibson, an experimental and clinical psychologist, who was an African American pioneer as a professor at the University of Michigan. He also pioneered the role of the psychologist in pediatric care. Under his leadership, the first pediatric psychology section in a department of pediatrics was established. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary: William James McGuire (1925-2007).

Obituary of William James McGuire (1925-2007). William James McGuire, considered by some to be the "father of social cognition" and a leading expert on attitude change and the self-concept, died in his home in New Haven, Connecticut, on December 21, 2007. McGuire was for several decades the field's premier researcher of the psychology of persuasion. His creative, groundbreaking experimental research in this area not only brought the study of attitudes and social influence to center stage in psychology but also shaped neighboring fields in sociology, political science, communication, and marketing. McGuire was a fellow of eight divisions of the American Psychological Association (APA) and a past president of APA Division 8 (Personality and Social Psychology). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary: Irving J. Saltzman (1923-2000).

Memorializes Irving J. Saltzman, known for his work as chair of the Department of Psychology at Indiana University. He guided the department through a time of major change in education and in psychology. He promoted an atmosphere that was particularly beneficial to new faculty at a time when the loyalty of faculty was decreasing and the professionalization of psychology was increasing. He was a tenacious proponent of his department, and led by example, saying that he could not expect others to do what he was unwilling to do himself. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toronto's "other" original APA member: James Gibson Hume.

It is well known that James Mark Baldwin held a position a the University of Toronto when he assisted in the formation of the American Psychological Association in 1892, but the proceedings of the preliminary organizational meeting of the APA, held in July of that year, include the name of a second Torontonian as well, that of J.G. Hume. The present paper outlines the career of James Gibson Hume, who studied with G. Stanley Hall, William James, and Hugo Münsterberg, and who headed the Philosophy Department at the University of Toronto for over 30 years. He was by no means a great or influential philosopher or psychologist, but the study of his life gives some insight into what a more common philosopher-psychologist was doing and thinking during the time that Hall, James, Münsterberg, and others were revolutionizing both disciplines. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary: Nathaniel N. Wagner (1930-1978).

Nathaniel N. Wagner was born in Brooklyn, New York, on January 31, 1930. He received a BA from Long Island University in 1951 and completed his MA and PhD at Columbia University. From 1956 to 1962, Wagner held various short-term and part-time appointments: Clinical psychologist in the U.S. Army and instructor at the University of Georgia, Pennsylvania State University, Dutchess Community College in New York, and Bard College. His main position during this period was as a clinical psychologist at the Astor Home for Children. In 1962 Wagner came to the University of Washington, where he served as professor of psychology and obstetrics/gynecology and as director of the Clinical Psychology Training Program from 1970 until his death. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Eleanor Jack Gibson (1910-2002).

Reports the death of Eleanor Jack Gibson (1910-2002) and notes her contributions in the fields of perceptual learning and developmental psychology during her 70 year career. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary: Samuel B. Kutash (1912-1979).

Presents an obituary for Samuel B. Kutash (1912-1979). Sam Kutash was a leader in the development of professional psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lee J. Cronbach (1916-2001): Obituary.

Reports the death of Lee J. Cronbach (1916-2001). The author gives a summery of his life and contributions to psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary: J. P. Guilford (1897–1987).

Joy Paul Guilford, known to his friends as J.P., died of natural causes on November 26, 1987, at the UCLA Medical Center. He was 90 years old. He is survived by his wife, Ruth, his daughter, Joan S. MeGuire, three grandchildren, and three great grandchildren. In 1924, Guilford entered the PhD program at Cornell University, where he studied with such giants in the history of psychology as E. B. Titchener, Kurt Kottka, Harry Helson, and Karl Dallenbach. Guilford immersed himself in psychophysics and other classical topics in the experimental psychology of the times, publishing 5 articles before earning a PhD degree in 1927. His doctoral thesis showed that variations in reported sensory experience with weak stimuli should not be attributed to fluctuations in attention as was commonly supposed at the time. A list of honors and awards are stated. He had a profound impact on psychology as a teacher, scientist, and writer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Robert J. Wherry, Sr. (1904-1981).

This obituary describes the professional career of Robert J. Wherry, which spanned 48 years, from 1927 to 1975. Wherry was an exceptional example of a quantitative-industrial psychologist who was able to make independent, original academic contributions, and yet have an exceptional understanding of problems of application. Throughout his career, two of Wherry's overriding interests were in the development and application of statistical models for prediction and factor analysis. In addition to his contributions to the quantitative literature, Wherry made substantial contributions to industrial psychology, publishing extensively in the industrial literature. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary: Felix E. Goodson II (1922-2007).

Provides an obituary for Felix E. Goodson II, a psychologist who focused mainly on evolutionary psychology and who passed away on May 17, 2007. In his teaching and writing, Felix emphasized the historical and theoretical roots of psychology, as can be seen in the four chapters he wrote for Theories in Contemporary Psychology (2nd ed., 1976), co-authored with Melvin Marx. His book The Evolutionary Foundations of Psychology: A Unified Theory (1973) grew out of almost two decades of seminars and empirical studies with DePauw students and colleagues. However, his magnum opus, 30 years in the making, was The Evolution and Function of Cognition (2003), published when Felix was 81 years old, 18 years after his formal retirement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Hiring of James Mark Baldwin and James Gibson Hume at the University of Toronto in 1889.

In 1889, George Paxton Young, the University of Toronto's philosophy professor, passed away suddenly while in the midst of a public debate over the merits of hiring Canadians in preference to American and British applicants for faculty positions. As a result, the process of replacing Young turned into a continuation of that argument, becoming quite vociferous and involving the popular press and the Ontario government. This article examines the intellectual, political, and personal dynamics at work in the battle over Young's replacement and its eventual resolution. The outcome would have an impact on both the Canadian intellectual scene and the development of experimental psychology in North America. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary: Lillian Gertrude Portenier (1890-1979).

Obituary briefly characterizes the background of Lillian G. Portenier and her contributions to the field of psychology. Her formal affiliation with psychology began in the fall of 1930, when she became assistant professor of psychology at the University of Wyoming, although she had been involved with psychology prior to that date. At the time, the Department of Psychology was headed by June Etta Downey. Funds were far from abundant and the teaching load was heavy, but Downey had established a tradition of excellence in both research and teaching and Portenier continued in that tradition. In 1934, after earning her doctorate in psychology from Columbia University, Portenier was promoted to associate professor of psychology and in 1939 to professor. During the World War II years of 1942-1944, she also served as acting head of the Department of Psychology and as acting head of Student Personnel Services. Lillian Portenier's major interests in psychology were related to mental testing, mental health, and child psychology. As well as teaching in these fields, she was active in applying the scientific method to society's problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary: Gardner Lindzey (1920–2008).

Presents an obituary for Gardner Lindzey, who was a major influence on the discipline of psychology in at least four different areas: social psychology, personality psychology, behavior genetics, and the history of psychology in autobiography. He conceptualized each of these fields in ways that stimulated their growth for over four decades and that provide challenges for contemporary psychologists. Gardner Lindzey was born on November 27, 1920, in Wilmington, Delaware, and died in Palo Alto, California, on February 4, 2008. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary: Helmut E. Adler (1920-2001).

Memorializes Helmut E. Adler, known for his research on spatial orientation in birds and for his writings on the history of psychology. In the 1960s with the help of his son Barry, he used computer simulations to study bird migration patterns, a highly innovative technique for the time. His most notable work in the field of the history of psychology was his translation of Volume 1 of Fechner's Elemente der Psychophysik in 1966. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary for Rudolf Arnheim (1904-2007).

Presents an obituary for Rudolf Arnheim. That Rudi was going to become a psychologist was not preordained, let alone that he would become the most important psychologist of art of the 20th century. Indeed, his father was a manufacturer of pianos and the expectation was that Rudi would enter the family business. Recoiling at this preordination, Rudi attended the University of Berlin, where he studied philosophy, psychology, music, and art. He had the good fortune to work with Max Wertheimer, perhaps the most gifted and imaginative of the three founders of Gestalt psychology. Rudi's doctoral dissertation, submitted in 1928 when he was but 24, was an empirical study of what could be learned from handwriting analysis. Thus Rudi began a lifelong fascination with how one perceived the visual world and how the act of perception is infused with--and inseparable from--cognition and the making of meaning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Edward J. Haupt (1936–2001).

Presents an obituary for Edward J. Haupt, a member of the psychology department at Montclair State University for 32 years. Haupt was known to the community of researchers in the history of psychology primarily through his regular attendance at meetings and conventions in the United States, Canada, and, frequently, Europe during the past 20 years. He was especially interested in one historical topic: the life and work of Georg Elias Müller (1850 –1934), pioneer experimental psychologist of the University of G?ttingen. Details on his scholarly pursuits and accomplishments are provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)