ERIC SCHAPS

SCHAPS--Eric. (September 16, 1942 - October 21, 2021). On October 21, 2021, Eric Schaps, age 79, passed away peacefully at home in Davis, California, after an extended struggle with cancer. Educational leader, orator, and visionary, Eric leaves behind a significant legacy of advocacy for what public schooling can and should be for children across America as well as the research and program development to enable schools to realize that goal. As founder and president from 1981 to 2011 of the San Francisco Bay Area non- profit the Developmental Studies Center (DSC), Eric conceptualized and led its mission to create, evaluate, and disseminate school-based programs designed to help children develop academically, socially, emotionally, and ethically in safe and caring classroom communities. Eric well understood the practical challenges teachers and administrators face daily in meeting their students' needs. He devoted his career to placing effective instructional tools into their hands to support them. Through his leadership in developing the first comprehensive, systemwide social-emotional learning program, he was able to document and demonstrate the gains children make when schools address academics hand-in-hand with social and emotional development. DSC's award-winning, evidence-based programs came to be used in thousands of classrooms across the country and continue to be widely disseminated to this day. His ground-breaking research, along with his creation of innovative social development and prevention programs, provided the foundation for the growth and expansion of mental health, social-emotional, and character education programs across the country. Eric was born and raised in Chicago. He attended Northwestern University as an undergraduate, Penn State for a master's degree in consumer psychology, and then Northwestern again where he earned a Ph.D. in social psychology. After graduation, he spent ten years evaluating drug abuse prevention programs, first at the University of Chicago, and later at a California non-profit he founded, called the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation. Eric was the author or co-author of three books plus 80 book chapters, journal articles, and commentaries. He was principal investigator on government and foundation grants totaling nearly $90,000,000. He received several professional awards, including the Sanford N. McDonnell Award for Lifetime Achievement in Character Education from the Character Education Partnership. Throughout the field, he was highly regarded for his intellectual integrity, quality research, and innovative program development. His work has reverberated nationally, with a profound and enduring impact on education. Following his retirement from DSC in 2011 and until 2018, Eric worked as an Executive Consultant to urban school districts on behalf of the Chicago-based Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), much of that work with the Metro Nashville Public School district in Tennessee. Eric was a reader, a gardener, a world traveler, and a poker player. He was proud of playing in one World Series of Poker event in Las Vegas - the 2008 Seniors No Limit Hold'em Championship - where he sat to the right of poker great "Amarillo Slim" Preston for several hours, repeatedly getting outplayed but staying competitive, and eventually "cashing" for roughly twice his buy-in. He never entered another event, lest he find the experience less memorable. He believed in savoring the best moments that life placed in his path. Eric approached life and work with courage, honesty, principle, and equanimity. He possessed both remarkable gravitas and well- timed wit in equal measure. He was genuinely interested in others; rather than talking about himself, he had a penchant for observing and asking questions. In doing so, he gave others the gift of feeling truly seen, heard, and understood. While generally reserved in public, he never hesitated to forcefully advocate for the educational policies and practices he believed schoolchildren truly deserved. A man of supreme integrity, quiet and thoughtful by nature, he paid little note to his own accomplishments, preferring to focus his and others' attention on the goal at hand and the work that needed to be done to achieve it. Those who recognize Eric's vast contributions to the field honor and remember him as a pioneer, a pathfinder, an architect, and a guiding light. He entrusts to others his legacy of work and caring on behalf of America's children. Eric is survived by his loving wife, Susie Alldredge; three children, Michael Schaps, Leyla (Ross) Benson, and Max (Katherine) Schaps; three grandchildren, Macie and Scarlett Benson and Veronica Schaps; siblings Richard (Katie) Schaps and Barbara (David) Thomas; sister-in-law Diana Schaps; and multiple nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his parents, Adolf Jack Schaps and Florence Lev Schaps, as well as his brother, Robert Schaps. He leaves behind many beloved memories and a broad educational community forever touched by his vision and leadership. He will be deeply missed.