Gregory Adams Kimble

Gregory Adams Kimble, distinguished professor and former chairman of the Department of Psychology at Duke University, died peacefully on January 15, 2006 at the Duke University Medical Center. He was 88 years old.
Greg Kimble was an internationally recognized leader in psychology, a science that explores the mind and its inner workings. He will be remembered as an influential scholar, teacher, author, administrator,mentor and national leader. His research specialty was learning and conditioning, and he was a leading authority in that areafor over a half century.
Professor Kimble was an inspiring teacher and passionate advocate of education, both at the university and on a national level. He taught from 1945 to 1984 at multiple universities, including Brown, Yale, Duke, and the University of Colorado, as well as visiting professorships at Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley. Over the course of his career, he wrote 14 books, including Hilgard and Marquis' Conditioning and Learning, a required text for most psychology graduate students in the 1960's and 1970's, as well as Principles of General Psychology, a textbook with six editions over nearly 30 years. That textbook was used at many universities to introduce psychology to hundreds of thousands of undergraduate students world-wide. He also wrote How to Use (and Misuse) Statistics, a short volume that took the mystery out of statistics for many more students.
After he retired in 1984, Kimble became a founding faculty member of the Talent Identification Program (TIP) at Duke University, an innovative and highly respected program for gifted middle school and high school students from around the country. In that program, he taught about scholarship and independent thinking, using the subject of psychology as a springboard for teaching those broader skills. He also served on the TIP National Advisory Board for 15 years, providing invaluable vision and guidance to the organization and its students.
Professor Kimble was an award-winning scientist and educator. An elected member of the Society of Experimental Psychology, Kimble's honors also included three prestigious awards from the American Psychological Association (APA): the Centennial Award for Sustained Contribution to Knowledge Dissemination, the Award for Distinguished Career Contributions to Education and Training in Psychology, and the Presidential Award for contributions to the magazine Psychology Today. Kimble was known as a tough but fair administrator from his time leadingthe highly regarded Departments of Psychology at University of Colorado, Boulder (1968-1977) and Duke University (1977-1982).
On a national level, Kimble served in many capacities, including service as chair of the "Cluster" on Behavioral Sciences reporting to President Nixon's Biomedical Research Panel; chair of a section within the American Association for the Advancement of Science; and President of the American Psychological Association Divisions of Experimental and General Psychology.
Greg Kimble was born in Mason City, Iowa on October 21, 1917. He was initially raised on a farm, but moved to Northfield, Minnesota during the depression, where his mother made extra money selling rhymes to Burma-Shave for their highway sign commercials - literary talent was clearly in the family. As an undergraduate, he attended Carleton College, a small liberal artsschool in the Midwest, which was an experience critical to his lifelong passion for teaching and scholarship. He earned his Ph.D. at Iowa University, where he met and married Lucille Laird, his wife and companion of 63 years. From Iowa, Kimble went toBrown University in Rhode Island, then to Yale University in Connecticut, and finally to Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, where he stayed for the remainder of his career except for a 10 year period at the University of Colorado in Boulder.While at Brown, Greg and Lucille had two children, Jeff and Judith. His last few years were spent at his home with his wife, Lucille Kimble, and with the loving assistance of his son.
Although a devotee of psychology and scholarship, Kimble had a tremendous love of life and many interests beyond his profession. His passions included Duke basketball, oriental rugs, cooking, listening to his son play banjo, talking science with his daughter and simply having fun with his many friends. He was loved for his irrepressible sense of humor and the twinkle in his eye.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial contributions in the honor of Gregory Kimble be sent to the Department of Psychology to establish a Gregory A. Kimble Scholars Fund within the Talent Identification Program: Kimble Scholars Fund, c/o Department of Psychology, Box 90086, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708.
A memorial service in honor of Gregory Kimble will take place in the spring of 2006. Notification will be sent to friends and colleagues within the next month.
The family is being assisted in Durham by Clements Funeral Service, Inc.