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: 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)     

Weston Ashmore Bousfield (1904–1986).

Wes Bousfield died September 6, 1986, in Connecticut, where he had lived and worked for almost 50 years. Bousfield attended college in New England, earning a BME degree at Northeastern University in 1927, two master's degrees (Boston University, 1928, and Harvard University, 1932), and a PhD in psychology from Harvard in 1933. Bousfield's publication record began in 1930, and he published almost 40 articles alone or with collaborators at Tufts and Connecticut up to 1953. These studies concerned a number of topics: apparatus, fatigue and motor skills, hunger (in rats, rabbits, chickens, and cats), and affective processes (especially euphoria, primarily by means of written responses to instructions such as "name as many pleasant things as you can" and by rating scales). The next 25 years of Bousfield's career were essentially devoted to the study of organization in memory through category clustering in free recall. His numerous publications after 1953 involved this topic. Bousfield served in other ways. He was Treasurer of the Eastern Psychological Association (EPA) from 1948 to 1950, and he was the first archivist of the invisible college known as the Group for the Study of Verbal Behavior (GSVB). At the time of Wes's retirement from teaching in 1971, a symposium in his honor was held at the meeting in New York City of the EPA. The symposium concerned his contributions to the study of organization and memory and included papers by James Deese and James J. Jenkins, co-workers for many years, the late C. Richard Puff, a former student, and Max Allen, a Connecticut colleague. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary: Robert R. Zimmermann (1930-2009).

Obituary [Robert R. Zimmermann; 1930-2009]. Robert R. Zimmermann, coauthor with Harry Harlow of “Affectional Responses,” the influential article on “mother love” published in the August 1959 issue of Science, died of esophageal cancer on November 3, 2009, in Lansing, Michigan. A member of the American Psychological Association for more than 50 years, Zimmermann published 70 articles, book chapters, and reviews; was the principal investigator on numerous federal, state, and local grants; and directed nearly 20 doctoral dissertations and master’s theses. Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, on April 3, 1930, he was the son of William and Daisy Zimmermann. He is survived by his wife Marian Shaffer, two sisters, seven children, and seven grandchildren. (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)     

Robert Plutchik (1927-2006).

Presents an obituary for Robert Plutchik, who died in Sarasota, Florida, on April 29, 2006, at the age of 78. Dr. Plutchik was a pioneer in emotion theory, and his influence on the discipline of psychology runs both wide and deep. In his wise, gentle, and graceful way, Dr. Plutchik exerted a powerful influence on the spread of the study of emotion from a sideline to a main concern not only in psychology, but in biology, in the social sciences, in psychiatry, and even in the humanities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Robert Laird Solso (1933-2005).

Presents an obituary for Robert Laird Solso (1933-2005). In 1983, Solso joined the Department of Psychology at University of Nevada, Reno, serving as department chair from 1983 to 1987 and continuing as professor until his retirement in 2004. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Carl Ward Backman (1923-2008).

Carl Ward Backman, a long-time fellow of the American Psychological Association, died at his home in Reno, Nevada, on February 16, 2008. He was 84. After earning a doctorate in sociology, he joined the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) in 1955. There he remained until his death, serving as a professor, department chair, director of social psychology, dean, and emeritus professor. His time at UNR was interrupted only by a two-year stint as program director for sociology and social psychology at the National Science Foundation in Washington, DC. Carl had a great influence on social psychology, the university he served, the department and the PhD program that he helped build, as well as on his colleagues, students, and friends. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Robert P. Abelson (1928-2005).

Presents an obituary for Robert Paul Abelson, who died in New Haven, Connecticut on July 13, 2005, from pneumonia brought on by Parkinson's disease. Dr. Abelson's wide-ranging intellect combined cognition with affect, the abstract with the everyday. His inclusive, collaborative orientation helped him become and remain a leading figure in multiple domains. He was a major contributor to social psychology, cognitive science, political psychology, and statistics, and he applied his insights and expertise to work of national importance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Robert E. Lana (1932-2006).

Presents an obituary for Robert Lana. Lana, a professor for 39 years at Temple University, died on October 17, 2006, of respiratory and cardiac problems. A leading social psychologist, Bob had retired from Temple in 2005. Born in Union City, New Jersey, on August 9, 1932, he received his bachelor of arts from Rutgers-The State University of New Jersey (1954) and his doctorate from the University of Maryland (1958). His doctoral dissertation was published in Psychological Bulletin (1959) and was awarded first prize in a national Psi Chi competition. Lana is survived by his wife Jean, his daughter Renata, and a grandson, Luca. His doctoral students include many eminent psychologists, who join his family and colleagues from around the world in mourning the death of a distinguished and charming scholar. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary: James J. Gibson (1904-1979).

Presents the obituary of James J. Gibson (1904-1979). Gibson was a perception psychologist who was also the creator and leader of an epistemological movement. His claim that perception is direct, requiring no inferential steps and no processing of information, presents a radical alternative to prevailing views of the nature of knowledge. Gibson's life and career are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

G. Robert Grice (1916-2005).

Presents an obituary for George Robert Grice, who was born in 1916, in Topeka, Kansas. Grice received his doctoral degree in experimental psychology in 1947. His doctoral work was supervised by Kenneth Spence, the influential learning theorist, and he began his early research within the Hull-Spence framework. Eventually his interests changed, and he directed his efforts toward studies of information processing and reaction time in humans. This work was focused on the development of a general theory of reaction time. Grice received numerous honors and held many prestigious posts during his career, including the presidency of the Division of Experimental Psychology of the American Psychological Association. He wrote research articles, particularly for the journal Perception and Psychophysics, into the 1990s. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Robert Strongman Daniel (1914-2004).

Obiturary for psychology educator Robert Strongman Daniel (1914-2004). Among other things the obituary mentions that Daniel received numerous awards, citations, and prestigious appointments from the University of Missouri, the American Psychological Association (APA), and other organizations. Although Bob retired in 1984, he continued to publish and conduct research as an emeritus professor. He presented a departmental colloquium in the late 1980s on the issue of student course evaluations. He and Nola endowed a junior faculty teaching award and a fund for named teaching assistantships at Missouri. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Robert Beverley Malmo (1912-2002).

Reports the death of Robert Beverley Malmo (1912-2002) and notes his contributions to the field of psychophysiological research and application to the understanding of psychiatric problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituaries: Robert Val Guthrie (1930-2005).

Presents an obituary for Robert Val "Bob" Guthrie, once called one of the most "influential and multifaceted African American scholars of the century." Dr. Guthrie's groundbreaking book Even the Rat Was White: A Historical View of Psychology (1976) was a catalyst in bringing into the mainstream of psychology the rich heritage of African American psychologists who were for the most part invisible in psychology. In a long and distinguished career, Dr. Guthrie functioned effectively in all the major roles of a psychologist. He was professor and chair of the Behavioral Sciences Department at San Diego Mesa College, associate professor of psychology and director of the Urban Psychology Program at the University of Pittsburgh, a research psychologist for the National Institute of Education in Washington, DC, and a supervising research psychologist at the Naval Research and Development Center in San Diego. He also spent time as a psychologist in independent practice. Dr. Guthrie enjoyed a career that spanned over 40 years, and he died on November 6, 2005. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Donald Olding Hebb (1904–1985).

Donald Olding Hebb ranks among the 20th century's most eminent and influential theorists in the realm of brain function and behavior. His premier theoretical synthesis was the book The Organization of Behavior, published in 1949, when the author was 45. Hebb's second major contribution was A Textbook of Psychology, first published in 1958 and eventually translated into 11 different languages. Hebb passed away on August 20, 1985 while in the hospital for what was expected to be minor corrective surgery on an arthritic hip. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Robert Stanton Nichols (1929-2005).

Presents an obituary for Robert Stanton Nichols, an advocate of military psychology who worked tirelessly to improve working conditions for military personnel and their families. Nichols spearheaded efforts to convince the APA Council to honor the uniformed psychologists who made contributions during the Vietnam conflict several decades earlier. He was a fellow in APA Divisions 12 (Society of Clinical Psychology), 19 (Society for Military Psychology), and 48 (Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict, and Violence). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Jacob Robert Kantor (1888–1984).

Presents an obituary for Jacob Robert Kantor (1888–1984). Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on August 8, 1888, Robert attended the University of Chicago where an early interest in chemistry was soon supplanted by devotion to psychological science. He earned the PhD in 1914 and was an instructor at the University of Minnesota from 1915 to 1917. Marriage to Helen Rich on September 2, 1916 provided him with a long-term collaborator and later a daughter, Helene Juliette. His PhD was awarded in 1917 and he served as an instructor at the University of Chicago from 1917 to 1920. In 1920 he became Assistant Professor of Psychology at Indiana University where he was to remain for 39 years; he was promoted to Associate Professor in 1921 and became Professor of Psychology in 1923. A cultured gentleman, Robert was an exceptionally knowledgeable connoisseur of literature, art, and music. One of his last publications, Tragedy and the Event Continuum (1983) examined a sample of literature in light of his naturalistic philosophy and psychology. His artistic preference favored the Impressionists and especially German Expressionism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Robert A. Harper (1915-2004).

Presents the obituary for Robert A. Harper (1915-2004). Dr. Harper is noted for his contributions to the field of psychotherapy, particularly to the areas of marriage, family, and sex therapy. In addition, his expertise, good nature, and no-nonsense style made him a popular figure amongst his peers, who elected him to leadership positions in numerous professional organizations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)