Spanier, Graham B.

Applied developmental scientists may contribute to the enhancement of human development in several ways. For instance, applied developmental scientists may conduct research on socially significant issues pertinent to human development; ascertain the developmental correlates of important social phenomena; devise developmentally and contextually sensitive indices of important facets of human development; integrate cutting-edge applied developmental science theory and research with principles for or the enactment of “best practice” programs; or disseminate information about the use of applied developmental knowledge to diverse community stakeholders and, in turn, learn from these communities in order to further the agenda for knowledge development. These latter activities involve engaging in collaborations between communities and researchers (or their institutions, typically colleges and universities) and may also entail academic and professional leadership to guide higher-educational institutions both to deliver higher-quality educational experiences to diverse citizens and to become engaged with communities in order to make value-added contributions to people's lives and contexts. In addition, such work may require evidence-based advocacy for marshaling the financial, human, and spiritual resources of our communities to create policies and programs that make effective, scaled, and sustained contributions to positive and healthy development.

Excellence in any one of these domains of applied developmental science would bring deserved professional admiration and public acclaim. Graham B. Spanier has made extraordinary and singularly creative and influential contributions to all these dimensions of applied developmental science. He stands alone as the most diversely accomplished applied developmental scientist in the history of this field.

Graham Basil Spanier was born in 1948, in Capetown, South Africa. His father had fled the terrors of Nazi Germany, and both parents, fearful of the racial practices associated with apartheid, soon immigrated to the United States and settled in Chicago, where Graham spent his childhood and adolescence. This period presaged some of the extraordinary achievements that Spanier would make as an adult. For instance, he and his boyhood friend, Brian Ross (who himself would eventually become a nationally renowned television journalist), had, as teenagers, their own radio show in Chicago. Their work was so well respected that they were granted interviews with many of the prominent performers of the 1960s.

Spanier received his BS degree in 1969 from Iowa State University, majoring in sociology and minoring in psychology and mathematics. He also received an MS degree from Iowa State, where he again majored in sociology and minored in psychology. In 1973, he completed his PhD in sociology at Northwestern University, where his mentor was the distinguished family scholar Robert F. Winch. During his doctoral training, Spanier was both a National Institute of Mental Health Doctoral Fellow (1971–1972) and a Woodrow Wilson Fellow (1972–1973).

Spanier's first academic position undertaken after the completion of his PhD was at the Pennsylvania State University, the institution at which, at this writing, he has served as president since 1995. Spanier joined (then) Division of Individual and Family Studies (now the Department of Human Development and Family Studies) in 1973, where he was appointed assistant professor of human development and sociology. Spanier was promoted from assistant professor to associate professor and achieved the rank of full professor by the time he was 32 years old. In addition, in [Page 1040]recognition of his burgeoning vision for programmatic and institutional advancement and of the reliance colleagues placed in his wisdom and leadership, Dr. Spanier was called on to undertake increasing administrative responsibilities at both departmental and collegewide levels. He served as divisional professor in charge before becoming associate dean for resident instruction in the College of Human Development, from 1979 to 1982.

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