Phebe K. Cramer, Professor of Psychology, Emerita
Your curiosity has carried you far. Wanting to learn more about yourself and about people led to a major in psychology, followed by graduate school and a career in teaching, research, and clinical practice. You arrived at Williams in 1970 as only the fifth woman on the faculty and went on to become the first woman to serve as full professor and to chair a department. Over that time, you have advanced, through more than ninety articles and five books, our understanding of how children become adolescents and then adults and of the roles in that process of defense mechanisms, fantasy, and play. Earlier in your career you also made your mark in the field of cognitive psychology. You have shared your knowledge with the local community through your work with area schools and youth organizations. Much of your own youth was devoted to competitive swimming, which resulted eventually in ten American records and one world record, in the one-hundred-yard butterfly. More recently, you have served as judge for the United States Figure Skating Association. When not judging or traveling the world, you have immersed yourself in a research project focused on an enormous longitudinal database that requires advanced statistical methods and holds the promise of many new insights into human development. We salute your four decades of service as a teacher, a scholar, and a role model for all our faculty.
I hereby declare you Professor of Psychology, Emerita, entitled to all the rights, honors, and privileges appertaining thereto.
June 7, 2009