Eric F. Graf

ERIC F. GRAF
Eric F. Graf, Emeritus Professor of Psychology of Ithaca College, died Thursday, June 3 at Hospicare in Ithaca.
In his own words:
"I was born June 26 1924 in Germany. I grew up in Augsburg, a city with a 2000 year history. Being exposed to history by the constant presence of historic sites, allows, if one is so inclined, for a quite special experience of that connectedness in which history and presence (sic) fuse. After graduating from secondary school, I became a professional actor and worked for eight years at a number of theaters in Germany. During that time I developed an interest in the awareness processes that determine musicality, started to teach voice and "graduated" from writing poems for my own enjoyment to writing short stories for journals. It was the interest in musicianship and writing that led me to start my university-studies in the area of musicology, literature and philosophy. In the pursuit of those answers I was trying to find for myself, I soon changed to psychology and sociology as the central areas of my studies, and, having become interested in existential philosophy, I attended the University of Zürich." [His graduate education included work with Carl Jung and Jean Piaget.]
"The combination of the studies in psychology, under Professor Wilhelm Keller and in sociology, under Professor von Schelting, together with my studies in Philosophy, generated what became, for me, the central topic of my life-time interests: What is the foundation, and what is the nature of the experience that is the awareness of being "I". It lead to my doctoral thesis Das Ich als sociale Gestalt ("I" as a social phenomenon). 1958 I came to the States, - actually to write my thesis away from those conditions that were familiar to me as my daily life. I started to teach at the --then-- East Carolina College, and stayed there for three and a half years, returned to Zürich to finish my degree and returned again to the States. I joined the faculty of Ithaca College in 1963, was the chairperson of the Department of Psychology for 22 years and retired in 1994 from teaching (I am now Professor emeritus of the Department). The last eight years I spent writing The Management of Fate, the first edition of which can be purchased online in several places."
Professor Graf founded the Ithaca College Social Relations Department in 1963, which, under his chairmanship became the Departments of Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology. He devised, with his colleagues, the Department's nationally unique Research Team Program, introducing truly collaborative faculty-student research opportunities for undergraduates, The Psychology-Business - now Applied Psychology - B.S. Program, and introduced to the College the use academic use of computers, teaching assistants and consensus departmental governance, among other concepts. During his retirement, he authored his remarkable book, The Management of Fate: A Contemporary Study of the Mind (2nd edition, in press 2010). It presents a revolutionary view of the biological nature of Language in our species as that which generates the experiences of Mind, Community and Society, Love and Spirituality. It sets a new course for psychology and related disciplines, freeing them, and us, in our everyday thinking, from the dead-end of mechanistic behaviorism, in our 2,500 year old Platonic Language-use.
In 1978, he married Margo (formerly Janet Margo Bell), an actress, singer and flutist, and at that time also an editorial assistant at Cornell University, with whom he has shared all these interests as well as the writing of his book. He is survived by her, numerous friends, colleagues, former students, and family (residing in Europe.)
In lieu of flowers, contributions to Hospicare or the Ithaca College Psychology Department are welcomed. A memorial gathering will be arranged sometime later this summer.