Benjamin Fruchter

Benjamin Fruchter Ben was born August 31, 1914, in New York City, to Nathan and Fannie (Freilich) Fruchter. His elementary education was in New York and California, and he graduated from Townsend-Harris, a high school for academically talented boys in New York City. He attended City College but graduated from Brooklyn College, receiving a B.A. in psychology in 1937. At the beginning of WWII, Ben was in the graduate school of psychology at U.C. Berkeley, supporting himself by working for the U.S. Railway Mail Service. He enlisted in the the U.S. Army Air Force, joining the Aviation Psychology program in Santa Ana, California, under the leadership of Col. (Dr.) J.P. Guilford. In 1943, he married Dorothy A. (Dee) Sewell, an employee of the program. The unit was subsequently moved to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, where Ben and Dee's son, Jonathan, was born in 1945. After the war, the family moved back to California, where Ben earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in psychology at U.S.C., with Dr. Guilford as his major professor. The couple's daughter, Judith, was born in Los Angeles. The family moved to Austin in 1948, with Ben employed to direct an Air Force research detachment associated with Lackland AFB but located at UT. He joined the University of Texas Department of Educational Psychology in 1949 and remained there as a professor until his retirement in 1994. His younger son, David, was born in Austin. Ben was a compassionate and fair but challenging teacher. He supervised thirty doctoral students and served on many doctoral committees during his tenure. His list of publications includes approximately 100 research papers and two widely used textbooks of research methods (one of the books, Introduction to Factor Analysis, was used to complete the first such analysis in several countries.) During the sixties, Ben and his colleague and good friend, Jackson B. Reid, were receiving so many requests for research proposals from the federal government that they decided to found a corporation, the Psychological Research Service, to better handle the work. This arrangement made contracting with government agencies much more efficient. Later, projects for state agencies were handled by a separate company, the Educational Development Corporation, founded on the same principles. EDCO built a small office building at 2813 Rio Grande in Austin. Ben was a fellow of four divisions of the American Psychological Association, a member of the Southwestern Psychological Association (president 1965-66), and a founding member of the Society for Multivariate Behavioral Research, and editor of its journal from 1974 to 1982. He was a Diplomate in Industrial Psychology, a member of AERA, and a fellow of AAAS. His name is listed in American Men and Women of Science and several other such lists. After retirement, he became a member of the Chancellor's Council. Ben and his wife founded an annual dissertation award in the Department of Educational Psychology as well as a scholarship awarded by the Retired Faculty-Staff Association at UT. Ben was pre-deceased by his parents, his sister, Edith, and her husband, Jack Brooks, and by his son-in-law, George Lianis. He is survived by his wife of sixty-six years, Dr. Dorothy A. (Dee) Fruchter; his son and daughter-in law, Jonathan and Cecelia Fruchter, of Richland, Washington; his daughter, Judith Fruchter Lianis, of Austin; and his son and daughter-in-law, David and Camilla Hsieh Fruchter, of Austin; also by his grandchildren, Diane Strother and her husband Ben, of Santa Monica, California, Daniel Fruchter, of Richland, Washington, and Nathaniel Fruchter, of Austin. He is also survived by his cousin, Charlotte Rubenstein and her family, in California. Ben spent the final years of his life in the hospital at the Summit at Westlake Hills. His family is grateful to the staff there for all the care and kindness he received. Ben was a loving, supportive, and considerate son, brother, husband, father, grandfather, and friend. His family, work, and friends were most important to him, but he was also fond of music, art, drama, golf, and travel. He and Dee visited over eighty countries, many on cruises. He was a consistent supporter of the Austin Symphony, the Austin Lyric Opera, and other Austin cultural organizations. Contributions in Ben's name may be sent to arts and cultural organizations such as these.