Frances Keesler Graham (1918-2013) Frances Keesler Graham, noted psychophysiologist and de velopmental researcher, died on April 16, 2013. Fran was bom in Canastota, New York, on August 1, 1918, to Norma Van Surdam and Clyde Keesler. She married David Graham in 1941, and they had three children: Norma, bom in 1944, Andrew in 1945, and Mary in 1952. Fran began her college training in mathematics at Penn sylvania State University, but thanks to a required psychology course, she fell in love with the field and quickly changed her major. She completed her undergraduate work in three years, graduating in 1938, and was accepted into graduate school that fall at Yale University to work with Clark Hull and Donald Marquis. She later worked with Dorothy Marquis and Pauline Sears. She persevered at Yale, receiving her doctorate in 1942 despite being warned she was unlikely to find a job in the field. Alter her graduation, Fran and Dave moved to Wash ington University in St. Louis. There, contrary to predictions, Fran managed to find a half-time child clinical position and a half-time unpaid position with research opportunities. After a brief period spent back East, she and Dave returned to Wash ington University, where she was then able to find a half-time position that included half a day free for research. With the help of her research assistant, Bettye Caldwell, and in collab oration with Barbara Kendall, she developed the Memory-forDesigns Test (1946, 1960), still in use today. During a second break from Washington University, Fran obtained an instructor position teaching experimental and developmental courses at Barnard College. Upon again returning to Washington University, Fran received local fund ing to investigate the effects of low blood oxygenation in newborns on behavioral variables. She soon received a sevenyear grant from the National Institutes of Health for this work, and two years later, a second grant to study validation of tests of brain injury in preschool children. During that time, she worked with Claire Ernhart and Ruth Matarazzo, as well as Bettye Caldwell. In 1957, Fran and Dave moved to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She was welcomed into the Department of Pediatrics (and later the Department of Psychology) and continued her research, with additional grants to pay her salary. Nonetheless, Fran was not offered tenure until 1964 and only then because she applied for and obtained a Research Scientist Award from the National Institute of Mental Health, a stipulation of which was having tenure. She continued receiving funding from that award until 1989. It was at Wisconsin that Fran made a planned shift in her research to recording psychophysiological responses since these worked well with infants as well as adults. In 1966 Fran and Rachel Clifton, a postdoctoral student, published an arti cle describing heart rate deceleration as the cardiac component of Sokolov’s orienting response. This landmark work went on
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to become a Citation Classic. Then in the 1970s, Fran began to focus on an early attentional component, one that involved prepulse inhibition of the eyeblink startle. Fran’s final move was to the University of Delaware in 1986, where she worked with her son-in-law Bob Simons on the event-related brain potentials related to orienting and star tle modulation. This move afforded Fran and Dave wonderful access to their children and grandchildren. Fran’s high-quality research, her success in obtaining 39 years of uninterrupted funding, and the very high regard in which she was held among her colleagues led to numerous awards and honors. She served as president of almost every society to which she belonged and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1988. Fran was recognized for her scientific contributions by the Society for Psychophysiologi cal Research and the Society for Research in Child Develop ment (both in 1981) and by Division 7 (Developmental Psy chology) of the American Psychological Association (APA; 1982). In 1990, APA recognized her with its Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions, and the American Psy chological Society named her a William James Fellow. In 1995, she received the American Psychological Foundation Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in Psychological Science. She was perhaps most pleased at being named to the Presidential Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research (1979— 1981). My first encounter with Fran was in 1965 via her letter offering me an assistantship. It took a neighbor reading the letter to notice that it was “Frances” not “Francis” Graham making the offer and to remark, “Oh, it’s a woman!” The male domination in the field, even then, was such that female professionals were considered unusual. Despite Fran’s love of research, it was clear her family was equally important to her. By the end of graduate training, I and her other graduate students knew a considerable amount about her three children since Fran often proudly mentioned them at our daily lunches with her. I feel privileged to have been mentored by Frances Graham, a feeling shared by virtually all her students. Fran was demanding (I wrote 13 drafts of my master’s thesis!) but equally willing to provide extensive assistance to students willing to work hard. She engendered in us the urge to always present our best ideas and best work. And like any good parent, she was also able to cut ties to a mentee when the time came. When I went to discuss publication of my dissertation, Fran politely but firmly let me know I was to write up the work with no input from her. And this led to an important lesson in independently tackling my own career. We all miss her greatly. W. Keith Berg University o f Florida (emeritus)
September 2014 • American Psychologist © 2014 American Psychological Association 0003-066X/14/$ 12.00 Vol. 69, No. 6, 622 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0037284
Copyright of American Psychologist is the property of American Psychological Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
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to become a Citation Classic. Then in the 1970s, Fran began to focus on an early attentional component, one that involved prepulse inhibition of the eyeblink startle. Fran’s final move was to the University of Delaware in 1986, where she worked with her son-in-law Bob Simons on the event-related brain potentials related to orienting and star tle modulation. This move afforded Fran and Dave wonderful access to their children and grandchildren. Fran’s high-quality research, her success in obtaining 39 years of uninterrupted funding, and the very high regard in which she was held among her colleagues led to numerous awards and honors. She served as president of almost every society to which she belonged and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1988. Fran was recognized for her scientific contributions by the Society for Psychophysiologi cal Research and the Society for Research in Child Develop ment (both in 1981) and by Division 7 (Developmental Psy chology) of the American Psychological Association (APA; 1982). In 1990, APA recognized her with its Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions, and the American Psy chological Society named her a William James Fellow. In 1995, she received the American Psychological Foundation Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in Psychological Science. She was perhaps most pleased at being named to the Presidential Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research (1979— 1981). My first encounter with Fran was in 1965 via her letter offering me an assistantship. It took a neighbor reading the letter to notice that it was “Frances” not “Francis” Graham making the offer and to remark, “Oh, it’s a woman!” The male domination in the field, even then, was such that female professionals were considered unusual. Despite Fran’s love of research, it was clear her family was equally important to her. By the end of graduate training, I and her other graduate students knew a considerable amount about her three children since Fran often proudly mentioned them at our daily lunches with her. I feel privileged to have been mentored by Frances Graham, a feeling shared by virtually all her students. Fran was demanding (I wrote 13 drafts of my master’s thesis!) but equally willing to provide extensive assistance to students willing to work hard. She engendered in us the urge to always present our best ideas and best work. And like any good parent, she was also able to cut ties to a mentee when the time came. When I went to discuss publication of my dissertation, Fran politely but firmly let me know I was to write up the work with no input from her. And this led to an important lesson in independently tackling my own career. We all miss her greatly. W. Keith Berg University o f Florida (emeritus)
September 2014 • American Psychologist © 2014 American Psychological Association 0003-066X/14/$ 12.00 Vol. 69, No. 6, 622 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0037284
Copyright of American Psychologist is the property of American Psychological Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
