William Bevan

Dr. William Bevan, scientist, scholar, teacher, and uneersity administrator, died February 19, 2007 in Durham, N.C., at Duke Uneersity Medical Center. Born in Plains, Pennsylvania, the son of William aneelizabeth Jones Bevan, he received his A. B. degree from Franklin and Marshall College with honors in psychology in 1942. He received the M.A. degree from Duke Uneersity in 1943. He entered the U.S. Navy in 1944 and was trained for service in the field of Naval Intelligence. Upon completing the course in Cantonee at the Naval Oriental Language School at the Uneersity of Colorado, he was assigned to the Chief of Naval Operations Office in Washington, D.C. Though he completed his active duty service in May, 1946, he remained in the reserves for 26 years. Bevaneeld his first teaching position was at Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio. Upon earning the Ph.D. in psychology at Duke Uneersity in 1948, Dr. Bevan then joined the faculty of Emory Uneersity in the fall of 1948 where he remained until 1959. During 1952-53 and oneeave from Emory, Bevan was a Fulbright Scholar at the Uneersity of Oslo, Norway. In the summer of 1959, his career took him to Kansas State Uneersity as chairman of the psychology department. After three years as chairman, he became Dean of Arts and Sciences and in 1963, he was appointed Vice President for Academic Affairs. Following a year as a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Palo Alto, CA, Bevan moved to Johns Hopkins Uneersity as Vice President and Provost in 1966, and professor of psychology. In 1970 oneeave from Hopkins, he accepted an appoineent as Executive Officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and publisher of Science magazine. In 1974, Bevan was appointed the William Prestoneew professor of psychology at Duke Uneersity, an appoineent he held until his retirement. Continuing his interest in creating dialogue in the scientific community, Dr. Bevan brought distinguished scientists to the uneersity for the Duke Round Table on Science and Public Affairs. He served as Provost of Duke Uneersity from 1979-1983 during which time he initiated the Talent Identification Program TIP, an initiative directed towards identifying, challenging, and inspiring intellectually gifted youth. Oneeave from Duke, he became Vice President and Director of the Health Program at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 1984. Bevaneemained at the McArthur Foundation until his retirement ineeptember, 1991. Dr. Bevaneeld memberships in Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Society of Experimental Psychologists. He was also a longtime member of the Cosmos Club in Washington D.C. Over the course of his career, Bevaneeceived seven honorary doctoral degrees and was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award from Duke Uneersity and Franklin and Marshall College. In 1989, he received the American Psychological Association Award for Contributions in Psychology in the Public Interest, and in 1991, he received the American Psychological Foundation Gold Medal Award for Life Contribution by a Psychologist in the area of Public Interest. Bevan was the author or co-author of 180 research papers aneessays. The American Psychological Foundation, where Bevaneerved as president, created an annual lecture in his honor