Featured Psychologist
Frederick Payne Watts, PhD, a founding faculty member of Howard University's counseling service in Washington, D.C., established the Howard University's liberal arts counseling service, which later became the University Counseling Service. He carried the proverbial academic torch there until 1970, where he conducted a number of institutional studies of Howard students.
He was born in the small town of Staunton, Va. After high school he entered Howard University with the intention of becoming an ophthalmologist, but his intense interest in "why people misbehave" led him to psychology courses. He graduated in 1926 and took a teaching fellowship in psychology that allowed him to complete a master's degree soon after.
He later received a doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1941, where he was the first African-American to earn a doctorate from the university and the nation's fourth African-American overall to obtain a doctorate in psychology.
Soon after receiving his doctorate, Watts was drafted into the Army in 1942 where he was a pre-induction classification officer and personnel consultant. In this role, Watts developed psychological testing facilities and supervised counseling of enlisted personnel. Discharged as a captain in the adjutant general's office, Watts was appointed assistant chief clinical psychologist for the Veterans Administration regional office in Philadelphia. In 1948, he returned to Howard and worked there for the rest of his career.
Watts published a number of professional papers and was a diplomat in clinical psychology from the American Board of Professional Psychology. Watts was an academic buoy in the waters of psychology, and the ripples of his work will be felt for years to come.
References
Sullivan, P. (2007, April 12). Psychologist Frederick Payne Watts, 103; Founded Howard U. Counseling Service. Retrieved Jan. 5, 2015, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/11/AR2007041102282.html