Weinberg, Richard A.

In 1969, George Miller, then president of the American Psychological Association, gave an address calling for the discipline of psychology to “give away” its knowledge through effective dissemination of ideas and practices. The professional career of Richard A. Weinberg stands as a living testament to this seminal call for action. In regard to all three legs of the stool supporting academic life in a land-grant university—disciplined inquiry, teaching, and public service—Weinberg has pursued this commitment to making basic and applied research meaningful in the lives of children, as well as in his own work with students and colleagues.

Richard Weinberg was born in Chicago in 1943. During his teenage years, Weinberg displayed an interest in music (taking piano lessons for more than 12 years and briefly aspiring to a professional career), writing for the school newspaper, and editing the yearbook. Although not interested in competitive athletics, he would become very involved in intercollegiate athletics decades later. During the summers of his high school years, he worked for his father, an attorney whose practice was dedicated to divorce and matrimonial law. Law, however, did not have particular appeal to Weinberg, who was more interested in psychology. His first exposure to this profession came in his father's law firm, where a psychologist assisted with some of the more difficult custody cases.

Pursuing his undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1960–1964), Weinberg majored in psychology. As an officer of his fraternity and through involvement in campus politics, he developed a penchant for organizing groups and providing strong leadership. At Wisconsin, Weinberg was awarded membership in Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, and other honorary societies as an acknowledgment of his academic and service accomplishments.

Following graduation, Weinberg was provided an opportunity to pursue a master of arts in teaching degree at Northwestern University under a Ford Foundation fellowship (1965). He majored in American literature and completed a teaching internship, instructing adolescents in English and mathematics at the Michael Reese Psychosomatic and Psychiatric Institute in Chicago, where his interest in psychology was further fostered.

Subsequently, Weinberg headed to the University of Minnesota to pursue a doctoral degree in school psychology and child development, with a National Institute for Mental Health fellowship (1965–68). His dissertation research, under the supervision of the late John Wright, focused on the modification of cognitive styles, reflection-impulsivity in particular, using behavioral techniques.

Weinberg secured his first teaching job in 1968 as an assistant professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, in New York City, where he began his collaboration with Professor Emerita Ann Boehm. The first edition of their volume, The Classroom Observer: Developing Observation Skills in Early Childhood Settings, was published in 1977 by Teachers College Press (it is now in its third edition; Boehm & Weinberg, 1997). This work reflected Weinberg's commitment from early on in his professional career to search for alternatives to traditional testing in the psychoeducational assessment of young children.

After 2 years at Columbia, enjoying the excitement of the Big Apple, Richard Weinberg returned to the University of Minnesota to join the faculty of the School Psychology Training Program, which was one of the first school psychology programs accredited by the American Psychological Association and awarded a training grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. He became a full professor of educational psychology in 1977 with adjunct appointments in the department of psychology and the Institute of Child Development. Weinberg served as director of the School Psychology Training Program from 1975 to 1980 and also from 1986 to 1988, reflecting an ongoing interest in administrative leadership. During his tenure as director of the program, Weinberg played a major role in planning the National Conference on a Blue Print for the Future of School Psychology Practice and Training.

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