Robert J. Havighurst

Robert James Havighurst (June 5, 1900 – January 31, 1991) was a professor, physicist, educator, and expert on aging. Both his father, Freeman Alfred Havighurst, and mother, Winifred Weter Havighurst, had been educators at Lawrence University. Havighurst worked and published well into his 80s. Havighurst died of Alzheimer's disease in January 1991 in Richmond, Indiana at the age of 90.

Havighurst was born in June 1900 in De Pere, Wisconsin. He attended public schools in Wisconsin and Illinois. He obtained a B.A. from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1921, an M.A. from Ohio State University in 1922, and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Ohio State in 1924. He was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand in 1953-1954 and at the University of Buenos Aires in 1961. He received an Honorary Degree Sc. from Adelphi University in 1962 and an Hon. L.L.D. from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1963.

He published a number of papers in journal of physics and chemistry about the structure of the atom in 1924. He went to Harvard University as a postdoctoral fellow, studying atomic structure and publishing papers in journals of physics and chemistry.

He decided to change careers in 1928, so he went into the field of experimental education. He became an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In 1940, he became an education professor at the University of Chicago in the University's Committee on Human Development. He worked in the field of aging. Again, in the same year he was interested in international and comparative aspects of education. He wrote several books and published many papers. His best-known book called "Human Development and Education". He was named a member of the National Academy of Education in 1965. He retired in 1983.

...
Wikipedia