Birthplace
and Family: Born August 20, 1913, in Hartford, Connecticut to Francis
Bushnell and Florence Kraemer Sperry of Elmwood, a small suburb. Father
was in banking; mother trained in business school and after dad's death,
when I was 11 years old, she became assistant to the principal in the
local high school. One brother, Russell Loomis, a year younger, went into
chemistry. I was married to Norma Gay Deupree, December 28, 1949. We have
one son, Glenn Michael (Tad), born October 13, 1953 and one daughter,
Janeth Hope, born August 18, 1963.
Education: My early schooling was in Elmwood, Connecticut and William
Hall High School in West Hartford, Connecticut. I attended Oberlin College
on a 4 year Amos C. Miller Scholarship. After receiving the AB in English
in 1935, I stayed on 2 years more in Oberlin for an MA in Psychology,
1937, under Professor R. H. Stetson. I then took an additional third year
at-large at Oberlin to prepare for a switch to Zoology for Ph.D. work
under Professor Paul A. Weiss at the University of Chicago. After receiving
the Ph.D. at Chicago in 1941, I did a year of postdoctoral research as
a National Research Council Fellow at Harvard University under Professor
Karl S. Lashley.
Professional positions:
Biology research fellow, Harvard University, at Yerkes Laboratories of
Primate Biology (1942-46); Assistant professor, Department of Anatomy,
University of Chicago (1946-52); Associate professor of psychology, University
of Chicago (1952-53); Section Chief, Neurological Diseases and Blindness,
National Institutes of Health (1952-53); Hixon professor of psychobiology,
California Institute of Technology (1954-present).
Awards and Honors: Amos C. Miller Scholarship, Oberlin College (1931-35);
National Research Council Fellowship (1941-42); Distinguished Alumni Citation;
Oberlin College (1954); Elected National Academy of Sciences (1960); Elected
American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1963); Howard Crosby Warren Medal,
Society of Experimental Psychologists (1969); Distinguished Scientific
Contribution Award, American Psychological Association (1971); California
Scientist of the Year Award (1972); Co-recipient William Thomson Wakeman
Research Award, National Paraplegia Foundation (1972); Honorary Doctor
of Science degree, Cambridge University (1972); Passano Award in Medical
Science (1973); Elected American Philosophical Society (1974); Elected
Honorary Member American Neurological Association (1974); Co-recipient
Claude Bernard Science Journalism Award (1975); Karl Lashley Award of
American Philosophical Society (1976); Elected Foreign Member of Royal
Society (1976); Honorary Doctor of Science Degree, University of Chicago
(1976); Elected member of Pontifical Academy of Sciences (1978); Honorary
Doctor of Science Degree, Kenyon College (1979); Wolf Prize in Medicine
(1979); Ralph Gerard Award of the Society of Neurosciences (1979); International
Visual Literacy Association Special Award (1979); Albert Lasker Medical
Research Award (1979); Honorary Doctor of Science Degree, The Rockefeller
University (1980); American Academy of Achievement Golden Plate Award
(1980)
A vocational and anti-brain-strain: Collected and raised large American
moths in grade school. Ran trap line and collected live wild pets during
junior high school years. Three-letter man in varsity athletics in high
school and college. Through middle life continued evening and weekend
diversionary activities including sculpture, ceramics, figure drawing,
sports, American folk dance, boating, fishing, snorkeling, water colors,
and collecting unusual fossils - among which we have a contender for the
world's 3rd largest ammonite.
From Les Prix
Nobel 1981.
Dr Sperry died in 1994.