Harold A. Edgerton
Harold A. Edgerton died April 6, 2003 in Santa Cruz, California a the age of 99. A past president of SIOP (19531954), Harold was a major contributor to psychological measurement, I-O psychology, counseling, and consulting psychology, with one hundred-plus publications to his credit. He is survived by his wife of 58 years, Wanda (Wendy), and his daughter, Mary Edgerton Kraft.
Born January 18, 1904, in Russell, Kansas, he attended Emporia State University (BS, 1924). At college he worked as a research clerk in the Bureau of Educational Measurement, scoring tests and computing statistics, beginning a career in measurement. When Dean A. Worcester, director of the Bureau, returned to Ohio State to complete his doctorate in 1926, Harold accompanied him and studied under Herbert A.
Toops.
Toops involved him in the construction of Forms 6 through 26 of the Ohio State Psychological Examination (the Rolls-Royce of scholastic aptitude tests), employed him on the Minnesota Mechanical Abilities Project (Donald G. Paterson), and got him summer jobs with Lewis M. Terman at Stanford; there he studied with T. L. Kelley and Harold Hotelling. Completing his PhD in 1928, he continued on at Ohio State as a research assistant in the Department of Psychology, eventually moving up the ranks from assistant professor to professor. In 1941 he became director of the Occupational Opportunities Service at Ohio State, one of the first college counseling centers. The focus was on vocational counseling, aptitude testing, and occupational studies. He taught courses in counseling, statistics, and personnel, and was adviser to 29 masters students (myself included) and six PhD students at Ohio State (e.g., Edward Borden and Chester Evans, first and second).
Influenced by Toops, his early publications emphasized computational statistics, making calculations for large Ns easier on desk calculators and Hollerith machines. Edgerton developed formulas, tables, and graphical methods. He and Albert Kurtz wrote Statistical Dictionary (1939), published by John Wiley and Sons, New York. Later publications reflected the Science Talent Search, specialized tests, research in personnel selection and training, tests in counseling, and counseling in colleges and the military.
Edgerton was a consultant to the U.S. Employment Services, Washington, DC; Science Service, Inc. (Westinghouse Annual Science Talent Search); Secretary of War, Personnel Research Section, AGO.
Edgerton left Ohio State in 1947 as a vice-president and later president of Richardson, Bellows, Henry and Co., Inc. In 1962 he founded Performance Research, Inc. in Washington, DC and was its president until he retired in 1970.
Edgerton served as president of Divisions 14 (Industrial and Business) and 13 (Consulting Psychology) of APA. Other notable professional activities include president of the Psychometric Society, diplomate of ABPP, president of ACPA Committee on Certification of Counseling Agencies, and service on APAs Committee on Standards for the Delivery of Psychological Services. He was a member of several honorary societies including, Sigma Xi, Pi Kappa Delta, Phi Delta Kappa, Alpha Psi Delta, and Pi Mu Epsilon. Additional information about his career is available at
http://www.siop.org/Presidents/Edgerton.htm.
Wilbur L. (Bill) Layton
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