Paradigm shift.

Ceci, Stephen J.

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For more than 50 years as a faculty member in Human Development, Henry N. Ricciuti was a leader in his field, a powerful advocate for families and youth, a nurturing teacher, and a mentor to fellow professors. Henry's easygoing, avuncular manner belied an incisive intellect. He was the last person to sing his own praises, always modest and self-effacing about his scholarly reputation. If you didn't know what he did for a living, I doubt you'd ever guess that he was one of the era's most important child psychologists.

As a young faculty member, I worked alongside Henry for several years before I realized how highly his work was regarded by fellow scientists. Early in my career, at a National Institutes of Health review section, a committee member mentioned that he was anticipating Henry's latest article. Another colleague joined the conversation, detailing Henry's groundbreaking work in nutrition and children's intellectual development. They went on to describe a host of scholars who had been mentored by Henry as PhD students. I was shocked to discover my dear friend had such a wide influence, but it fit his humble personality to not let on about these achievements.

Henry's accomplishments were numerous, leading the Society for Research in Child Development to honor him in 2001 with its lifetime award for Distinguished Contributions to Public Policy for Children. His approach to research questions was inherently ecological, long before that adjective came into broad use among developmental psychologists.

Unlike many who studied children's behavior out of context, Henry understood that children's surroundings exerted influences both additively and interactively on their emerging behavior. His research examined cognitive and social outcomes for children, often in developing countries, as a function of cultural and economic factors. He was conscious of the smallest details--how their houses were built, and whether their floors were regularly swept--and recognized that such ordinary ecological factors often accounted for important variations in children's development.

Along with his research contributions, Henry selflessly served Cornell for decades. Twice he chaired the Department of Human Development and, most notably, he co-chaired with professor Sally Blackwell a committee that reorganized the college from Home Economics to Human Ecology in 1969. More than a name change, these actions represented a paradigm shift that propelled the college into the top tiers of international scholarship and outreach. It is no exaggeration to say that much of the College of Human Ecology's current success began with a report that Henry co-authored a half century ago.

Each fall, the department honors Henry's legacy with the Ricciuti Lecture Series, which attracts eminent psychologists to campus to discuss ideas on child health and behavior. In 2005, when Henry learned that a lecture series had been dedicated in his name, he was shocked and did not feel he deserved such an honor. But he most definitely did.

Until his death in 2011, Henry attended many of these lectures, and I watched as the speakers--the most eminent developmental psychologists--paid tribute to Henry's achievements. Despite his demurrals, I could tell Henry was thrilled!

Stephen J. Ceci is the Helen L. Carr Professor of Developmental Psychology in Human Ecology.