To span three continents, 50 years of behavior therapy, hundreds of professional publications and formal addresses worldwide, plus decades of postdoctoral training and administration in less than 1,300 words is a formidable undertaking.

Born in Wales, in the United Kingdom, in 1923, and raised in a pleasant Welsh seaside town, I attended an elite state-financed grammar school from 1935 until 1941. Latin and classical Greek were compulsory, and, for the few Jewish students, after-school Hebrew classes and Jewish cultural programs were optional for those who, like me, so chose. In addition, weekly Welsh language classes were compulsory for all students despite the fact that virtually no one in our community used Welsh, if they understood it at all, as their primary tongue. Thus, I ...