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Saul B. Sells was a charter member of the
Southwestern Psychological Association (SWPA), founded in 1954, and
served as its president in 1962-1963. On his passing in 1988, he left a
generous endowment in his will to fund a lecture series to be delivered
at each year’s annual meeting of SWPA. Consistent with his primary
interests and contributions during his career, the lecture is to be in
the areas of industrial/organizational, personality/social, or
educational psychology or drug abuse treatment and evaluation. Each
year’s lecture features a research psychologist of national or
international prominence.
Saul was born on January 13, 1913, in New York City.
His bachelor’s degree was from Brooklyn College (1933) where he majored
in psychology and philosophy. His Ph.D. was awarded by Columbia
University (1936) where he studied under Robert S. Woodworth and Edward
L. Thorndike. As a student, Saul showed an unusual flair for
statistics. During World War II, he supported the war effort as Chief
Statistician in the Federal Government’s Office of Price
Administration. From 1948 until 1958, he served as the Head of the
Department of Medical Psychology at the U.S. Air Force School of
Aviation Medicine, Randolph Field, San Antonio, Texas. Beginning in
1958, and for the remainder of his career, Saul was a faculty member
and research professor at Texas Christian University, where he founded
the Institute for Behavioral Research in 1962, serving as its director
until his retirement in 1983.
Saul was completely dedicated to his profession and
work. During his long career, he authored over 400 journal articles and
22 books. The depth and breadth of his contributions to both academic
and applied psychology is evidenced by the fact that he was elected by
his peers as a fellow in 10 different divisions of the American
Psychological Association. Always an innovator, Saul served on numerous
editorial boards over the years, but he is remembered especially for
his role in 1966 as the founding editor of Multivariate Behavioral
Research.
In the early morning of February 4, 1988, at the age
of 75, Saul died of a heart attack in his home while preparing to
attend a meeting on yet another new project. He and his wife, Helen,
had no children, but Saul left a small army of former students and
colleagues that continue his work and traditions. Among these are D.
Dwayne Simpson, who is the current Director of the Institute of
Behavioral Research at Texas Christian University, and Ludy T.
Benjamin, who is Presidential Professor of Teaching Excellence at Texas
A & M University. Most of the information for this article came
from an obituary, authored by Simpson and Benjamin, which appeared in
the American Psychologist (1988).
Contributed by:
Paul R. Nail, Ph.D.
Research Fellow, Institute of Behavioral Research (1978-1980)
President, SWPA (2005-2006)
University of Central Arkansas
September 9, 2008
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