Dr. John A. Popplestone, founder and original director of the Archives of the History of American Psychology passed away in Akron, Ohio on September 15, 2013.
Dr. Popplestone earned his doctoral degree in psychology from Washington University in 1958 and was a faculty member in the psychology department at The University of Akron from 1961 to 1999.
He and his wife, the late Dr. Marion White McPherson, established the Archives of the History of American Psychology in 1965 with support from The University of Akron.
He directed the Archives until his retirement in 1999.
We in the history community owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. Popplestone and Dr. McPherson. The Center has come a long way since John and Marion began collecting and storing psychology’s history in a small room in the university library. The Center has grown in ways that our early founders could not have anticipated and we are grateful for their early foresight and perseverance.