Psychology pioneer dies at age 89

rofessor Emeritus of Psychology Vincent Nowlis, who pioneered the study of moods and worked on early groundbreaking studies in human sexuality and child rearing, died May 24, in Fresno, Calif. He was 89 years old.

The creator of a mood survey that has been used in hundreds of psychological studies for more than five decades, Nowlis also served as a consultant on drug abuse prevention in the United States and in other countries.

"Vincent Nowlis was the foremost pioneer in the area of mood science, a field that has grown since his initial work to a place of such prominence as to generate thousands of research studies at the present time," says Robert Thayer '64 (PhD), professor of psychology at California State University at Long Beach and former student of Nowlis's.

Nowlis received his doctorate from Yale in 1939 and began his career as one of the first psychologists to study primates to gain insight into the evolutionary roots of human social behavior.

In 1951, Nowlis and his wife, Helen Howard Nowlis, also a psychologist, were invited to join the faculty at Rochester and expand their research into the use of drugs in analyzing human behavior. Here, Nowlis developed the Mood Adjective Check List, which he used to determine the effects on mood of a wide variety of settings or stimuli, including films, drugs, space travel, submarine confinement, and combat.

Nowlis held teaching and research positions at Yale, the University of Connecticut, Indiana University, and the University of Iowa before coming to Rochester. After his retirement in 1979, he continued to live in Rochester until November 2002, when he moved to Fresno.

His two wives, Eleanor Riley Nowlis and Helen Howard Nowlis, and his son, Geoffrey, died earlier. He is survived by his sons, David Nowlis and his wife, Jean Crane, of Fresno, and Christopher Nowlis and his wife, Nancy Nowlis, of Jacksonville, Fla.; six grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

Gifts in his memory may be sent to the Bowdoin College Alumni Fund, Brunswick, ME 04011.

A memorial service will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. on Sunday, September 28, in the Interfaith Chapel.

Maintained by University Public Relations
Please send your comments and suggestions to:
Public Relations.