Frank McGuigan dies of cancer

Frank McGuigan, PhD, 73, a psychologist who was nominated to run for 1999 APA president-elect, died of complications from cancer on April 8.

McGuigan was a distinguished research professor and director of the Institute for Stress Management at the United States International University (USIU) in San Diego. He served on the psychology faculty there for 15 years, winning the university?s annual faculty award for excellence in research in 1996.

McGuigan studied and wrote extensively about stress and tension control. He was considered to be one of the most eminent teachers and practitioners of progressive relaxation?a method of relaxing the body by tensing one muscle group at a time.

McGuigan served in the U.S. Navy during World War II as a communications officer on the staff of the commander of destroyers and cruisers in the Pacific. He received his PhD from the University of Southern California in 1950. From 1949 through the mid-1970s, he held academic appointments at Pepperdine University, North Carolina State University, University of California?Santa Barbara, University of Hawaii, Hiroshima Shudo University, George Washington University and the University of Nevada. From 1955 to 1976 he was professor of psychology and department chair at Hollins College in Roanoke, Va. From 1976 to 1983, he was a professor in the departments of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Louisville and director of the university?s Performance Research Laboratory. McGuigan had also served as adjunct professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Louisville School of Medicine since 1986.

McGuigan won several national and international awards, including medals of honor from the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences and the Union of Scientists of Bulgaria. The American Psychological Foundation (APF) honored him with the Distinguished Teaching Award in 1973 and the Gold Medal Award for lifetime achievement in the application of psychology in 1995. McGuigan was nominated in 1995 and 1996 for the Nobel Prize in physiology.

McGuigan was a major contributor to the APF. He established the McGuigan Research Fund for Understanding the Human Mind in 1992, which sponsors annual lectures on that topic. He also established a trust that is now valued at $335,000.

'In addition to his outstanding research and teaching, Joe McGuigan was one of the kindest and most generous people I have ever known. The McGuigan Fund, established through his bequests to the American Psychological Foundation, will be a lasting monument to his contributions to the study of the human mind,' says Raymond Fowler, PhD, APA?s chief executive officer.

McGuigan authored over 90 journal articles, books and book chapters, including his landmark book 'Biological Psychology: A Cybernetic Science' (Prentice Hall, 1994). He had served as the editor of the International Journal of Stress Management since 1993.

McGuigan is survived by his wife Betty, their children?Joan, April, Constance and Rich?and their two grandchildren.