APA18

The Harold M. Hildreth Award

Harold Hildreth was a long time friend of Division 18. A Division President in 1958 and APA Council member for the Division from 1953-1956, Hildreth seemed to be naturally inclined toward public service and spent much of his life devoting himself to the application of psychology to wide areas of endeavor. He described himself as having special research interests in socially sensitive areas. His diverse clinical activities ranged from helping to develop police training films, to interests in suicide, homosexuality and emergency mental health services. He was the second person to serve as the Chief Clinical Psychologist in the Department of Veteran Affairs (1948-1956) and followed that appointment with a distinguished career in the Community Research and Service Branch of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). He served as a model for dedication and achievement in serving the public.

Hildreth was described by those who knew him as an extraordinary leader who made you believe in the importance of psychology and who had a fantastic memory for personal events which endeared him to others. Beyond personal qualities and interpersonal skills, it was Hildreth’s role as a visionary which constituted his major contribution and which set him apart from his contemporaries. He sketched a glorious, yet eminently believable, future for psychology. Responding to his charisma and infectious enthusiasm, his more practical-minded associates eagerly enlisted in the effort to apply psychology to bettering the human condition.

It was singularly appropriate that, upon his death in 1965, the Division established an award for outstanding public service to the public in his memory. The Harold M. Hildreth Award for Distinguished Public Service has remained the highest award that the Division could bestow.

Past Winners

Robert Fein 2008
Scotty Hardgrove 2007
Walter E. Penk 2006
Carol T. Mowbray 2005
Herbert Dorken 2004
Paul E. Gendreau 2003
Ronald F. Levant 2002
Edward Mulvey 2001
Dale L. Johnson 2000
Frederick J. Frese III 1999
Harriet P. Lefley 1998
J. Wilbert Edgerton 1997
Alice F. Chang 1996
Bruce D. Sales 1995
Lee B. Sechrest 1994
Patricia F. Waller 1993
Gary B. Melton 1992
Robert L. Custer 1991
& John E. Davis, Jr .1991
Charles Windle 1990
Alfred M. Wellner 1989
Asher R. Pacht 1988
Durand F. Jacobs 1987
James Grier Miller 1986
Patrick H. Deleon 1985
NO AWARDS GIVEN 1984
Charles A. Stenger 1983
Cecil P. Peck 1982
Stanley Schneider 1981
NO AWARDS GIVEN 1980
Betty H. Pickett 1979
Herman Feifel 1978
Lee Gurel 1977
Milton W. McCullough 1976
Henry P. David 1975
NO AWARDS GIVEN 1974
Margaret Ives 1973
Norman I., Farberow 1972
Henry W. Riecken 1971
Jerry W. Carter 1970
Marucie G. Kott 1969
John C. Eberhart 1968
Joseph M. Bobbitt 1967
Edwin S. Shneidman 1966