Fan Mail from WMU Alumni
September
26, 2005
Dick,
I ran across your web site today and was disappointed to find that
you'd developed two PowerPoint presentations on Jewish mothers without
asking me about them. I know you have the behaviorism end of the topic
covered very well, but I grew up with the real proverbial Jewish mother.
Therefore, I have much first-hand experience with the topic. Although
I intended to run away from that level of supervision, I managed to
marry a nice Irish-Catholic girl who also turned out to be a Jewish
mother. Go figure!
In all seriousness,
I enjoyed the web site and especially the photos, including the ones
from Jack Michael’s retirement party. I think that was the last
time you and I saw each other, although I see Jack quite regularly.
At any rate, I hope all is well with you.
Seeing the "Behavior
Babes" reminded me of at a party at the Snapper's about 23 years
ago. That evening, shortly after our son, Josh, was born, you gave
him a stuffed animal (a duck as I recall) and held and played with
him. Josh is now finishing his last quarter of college and will be
moving to Chicago in December to work on the Chicago Board of Trade.
He did not take after his father (or mother) and instead became a
finance and economics major. At least he's happy with his chosen field.
I've retired from Palisades
and am splitting my time between developing training material for
a consulting company and working as a school psychologist two-days
a week at the Bangor High School. (I was a school psychologist before
moving to Kalamazoo 25 years ago!)
Ellen is still working
for the Van Buren ISD splitting her time between being an OT and an
autism consultant.
Keep up the good (behavioral)
work and hope to catch up with you soon. Write back if you have the
time.
Henry Winter
August 1, 2005
Dear Dr. Malott:
I doubt you will remember
me, after all, you've had a lot of students through the department
over the years. I was a lost freshman, on the verge of flunking out
of WMU, when I read Chapter 1 of Elementary Principles of Behavior
in my Psych 150 class in January of 1969. The epiphany I experienced
(yes, it was religious in nature) changed my life. Behaviorism literally
made all the sense in the world and gave me something to believe in.
I ran my white rat through its paces, took my quizzes, and found some
direction in my life. I became a first year SCEP student living in
SCEP housing at the top of Grant Street (although I still think it
should have been called the First Underground College of Kalamazoo),
was a Psych 150 TA (and later an ATA), and for awhile was even the
“Rat Man”, taking care of the rats and pigeons. Wood Hall
became my home and my psych friends became my best friends and I was
proud to be “one of those psych freaks”. Hell, I even
bought Fred Keller’s bathrobe at Sandy Hitzing’s garage
sale.
I learned how to study
(and organize my life), got a part-time job at the Title VI program
for multiply-handicapped children, and eventually was graduated from
WMU with a BS in Psychology and a 3.5 GPA. I worked in mental health
for a while before going to law school and for the past 15 years I’ve
been in Wisconsin doing legal seminars and education classes for real
estate people all over the state. In fact, I was even chosen as Wisconsin
“Instructor of the Year” for 1998 by the Wisconsin Realtors
Association. I firmly believe that any success I have achieved through
all of this has been a direct result of having gone through the psychology
program at Western. The pivotal point in my life was clearly that
first day of Psych 150.
Moreover, I feel extremely
fortunate that while I was an undergraduate you personally always
took the time to talk with me, help me sort things out, provide me
with direction (and sometimes advice), give me encouragement, and
just generally helped make me feel like maybe I was somewhat worthwhile
after all. The positive impact you had on my life is immeasurable.
When I was recently asked to name the three biggest influences in
my life, I said my father, Dick Malott, and then I had to think about
the third. After explaining who Dick Malott was and why I named you,
someone asked me if I had ever told you this. I felt badly when I
had to answer “not really”.
When visiting my daughter
while she was a student at Western I would stop at Wood Hall occasionally
to see if I could catch you in, but it never worked out. Over the
years, I have lost touch with most of my old “psych friends”
and now that my daughter graduated I don’t get to Kalamazoo
any more. But, over the weekend I was listening to a program called
“Calling All Pets” on Wisconsin Public Radio with Ph.D.
zoologist Patricia McConnell who is a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist.
Actually I have no pets, I just like to listen to the program because
she speaks a language I used to hear around Wood Hall and it satisfies
a certain need I periodically have. Where else am I going to hear
on the radio words like "positive reinforcer", "schedule
of reinforcement", "extinction burst", "shaping",
and "successive approximations"? This week, after listening
to her show, I was inspired to write to you and thank you for taking
the time to give some direction and support to a struggling undergraduate.
I’m sure you’ve
had a similar impact on many other students over the years and you
probably receive letters like this fairly regularly. However, this
one is long overdue and even though I didn’t end up in psychology
as a career, my training has been with me every step of the way. I
guess you can take the boy out of behaviorism, but you can’t
take behaviorism out of the boy.
Thank you again for all
you have done and best wishes to you and everyone in the Psych Department
at Western.
Sincerely,
Michael Sewell
PS - After all these years
of not contacting you, imagine my embarrassment when I find your website
and see that you have a book on procrastination.
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