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Adult Development & Aging News Adult Development & Volume 44, Number 1 Spring 2016 Aging News President's Message Remembering Jim served as President Dr. James E. Birren of Division 20 in 1956- (1918-2016) 1957 and, in 1978, he received the When I wrote my column last Distinguished Research October on remembering and Achievement Award from acknowledging our mentors, I the Division. His career had no idea that I would spanned the history of continue this theme with Division 20. He would remembering the mentor to often tell the story of how all of us in Division 20 — he attended the first James E. “Jim” Birren. He meeting of Division 20 in was Professor Emeritus of Harvey Sterns Detroit in 1947. At the Division 20 President Psychology and Gerontology, first banquet, it was Founding Dean of the Andrus Inside: decided that the Gerontology Center, and the Autobiography, published youngest member of the by APA and another in 1 President's Leonard Davis School of division present would be Message Gerontology at the University 2006 in the LLI Review. the guest of the division. of Southern California. He Who better to tell his That person was Jim 3 Birren also created the Andrew story than the person who Birren. Obituary Norman Institute for wrote and talked about Advanced Study in autobiography for over 30 4 Program We have all benefitted years. Report Gerontology and Geriatrics at USC. Later he would move to from his books and 5 Feature University of California at Los papers. The first I have known Jim since Article Angeles to organize the Handbook on the my graduate school days Borun Center for Psychology of Aging and at West Virginia, was a 6 Council Gerontological Research and the Individual was edited student in the 1969 Report serve as Associate Director by Jim and was published Summer Institute in of the UCLA Center on Aging. in 1959. This was the Gerontology at USC, and 7 Teaching major graduate text for was invited by Jim to be a Tips many of us until the Jim was a pioneer in aging Fellow of the Andrew Handbook of Psychology 9 Featured research and was considered Norman Institute for of Aging series began in Student by many to be the father of Advanced Study of 1977. Later there were modern gerontology. He was Gerontology and many other books and 12 Division 20 a Past President of the Geriatrics in 1982-1983 papers with over 250 Candidate Gerontological Society of leading to the book Age, Statements publications. America. His death occurred Health and Employment. He also involved me in the 16 Student on January 15, 2016 at the We are fortunate to have organization committee of News age of 97. A memorial symposium is being planned autobiographies written the NATO Conference on 17 Executive for the APA Annual Meeting by Jim. One can be found Aging and Technology Board Meeting in Denver. USC is also in James E. Birren and and later in the book that Minutes planning a memorial event to Johannes J. F. Schroots followed. He continued to be held in April. (Eds.)’s (2000), A History be a friend and mentor of Geropsychology in over the years including a Continued on p. 2 Adult Development and Aging News is published three times a year by Division 20, Adult Development and Aging, of the American Psychological Association. 2 President's Message, continued from p. 1 Adult Development & Aging News is note congratulating me on years. A six-hour series of Schaie (Methodological edited by Grace my return as division Caskie (Lehigh presentations and Issues in the Psychology president. I’m sure many University). discussions will be hosted of Lifespan Development), others would like to pay at the 2016 APA and Greg Smith tribute to Dr. Birren. I will Deadlines for ask our newsletter editor, conference featuring (Methodological Issues in submissions are: Grace Caskie, to provide an speakers and a reaction Intervention with September 1 opportunity for statements in panel that will address the Grandparents); and, in the March 1 our next newsletter. following areas within Intervention and Plasticity June 1 Lifespan Development: 1) area – a keynote by Looking Ahead to Denver Methodological Issues; 2) Cameron J. Camp on Mail Queries: Intervention, Modifiability, Applied Lifespan In this issue as well as in & Plasticity; and 3) Developmental Grace Caskie the next issue of newsletter Theoretical & Conceptual Psychology: Lessons from Associate Professor will be information about our Approaches. Outcomes Montessori and Dept. of Education and meeting in Denver. Wally Human Services Boot and Kathryn Judge will include the Neuropsychology as well Lehigh University have assembled a great development of a shared as talks by Sherry Willis 111 Research Drive program. Kathie Judge and I website that will house the (Plasticity in Old Age: Bethlehem, PA 18015 Phone: 610.758.6094 were successful in receiving keynote speakers’ papers Influence of Lifespan Fax: 610.758.6223 a CODAPAR grant to and edited videos from the Theory), Boris Baltes present the following sessions along with a set (Motivation for Working workshop: Forty-five Years of Material of professional resources across the Lifespan) and Submission: Influence of the Lifespan Developmental Approach: and instructional Jackie Lerner (Character [email protected] Past, Present, Future. materials. Development in the Second Decade). This special session will be This program is still under presented at the 2016 APA development but already Please plan to join us. Annual Meeting resulting includes the following: in from a collaboration between the Theoretical & Adult Development & Aging Conceptual Approaches (Division 20); Developmental area — a keynote by Psychology (Division 7); and Willis (Bill) F. Overton on Experimental Psychology Life-Span Developmental Editor's Note: If you are interested in writing a (Division 3) and supported by Paradigms and Meta- tribute to Dr. Birren for a grant from the Committee models: 1968-2016, and the next newsletter talks by Manfred Diehl on Divisional APA Relations. issue, please submit The Lifespan Developmental (Modifiability of Middle your statement in a Approach has provided an Age and Older Adult Word document no later overarching and vital Views of Aging) and than June 1, 2016 via framework for understanding Ursula Staudinger email at [email protected]. human development from (Plasticity of Human conception to death. This Aging); in the special set of sessions will Methodological area — provide a review, Sara Czaja examination, and discussion (Methodological of the influence of the Challenges in Lifespan Developmental Psychosocial Approach across the past 45 Interventions), Warner Adult Development and Aging News Spring 2016 3 OBITUARY James E. Birren (1918-2016) Born April 4, 1918 in Chicago, Birren received a bachelor’s degree in education from Chicago Teachers College (now Chicago State University). He completed a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in psychology at Northwestern University, receiving his doctorate in 1947 following his service in the United States Navy. In his naval service, he participated in research at the Naval Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. It was during this time he met physiologist and gerontology pioneer Nathan Shock, who was forming the U.S. Public Health Service’s inaugural gerontology research unit in Baltimore and asked Birren to join him after he completed his doctorate. During three years in the Baltimore research unit, Birren studied the differences in young and older subjects; his research questions ranged from variations in visual dark adaptation to intelligence and behavior speed. Following his work at the U.S. Public Health Service, he relocated to the National Institute of Mental Health, where he founded the Institute’s Section on Aging and established its multidisciplinary view of aging. In 1964, he also launched the research programs in aging at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the precursor of the National Institute on Aging. It was then that USC President Norman Topping successfully recruited Birren to come to Los Angeles in 1965 and establish the university’s program in gerontology. As the gerontology program’s first director, he immediately began to secure grants and recruit faculty and students across numerous fields, leading to the dramatic growth of the program. He oversaw the fundraising and construction of the Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center, which was dedicated in 1973 and remains the home of the Davis School. In addition to the Andrus Center’s support of aging research, Birren saw the need for an institution to educate individuals who wished to create and deliver services to the elderly. It was with this vision that he led the planning and creation of the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, the first and largest school of gerontology in the world. The Davis School opened in 1975 and was named with an endowment gift from American Association of Retired Persons President Leonard Davis. Birren was appointed the school’s inaugural dean, a position he held until 1989. Throughout his deanship at the Davis School, he cemented the school’s role as an educational pioneer in gerontology, establishing the gerontology field’s first Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees. He also remained a prolific researcher, studying cognitive changes in relation to aging, publishing more than 250 papers, and authoring and editing several of the field’s most important books. Outside of the school, he held numerous other professional leadership roles, including co-founder of the California Council on Gerontology and Geriatrics. Among the dozens of high honors he received from his colleagues are the Gerontological Society of America Award for Meritorious Research, the Ollie Randall award from the National Council on Aging, induction into the American Society on Aging Hall of Fame, the American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions, and the USC Associates Faculty Award.
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