Rensis Likert, prime mover in establishing the Institute for Social Research at the University, completed his retirement furlough at the end of last month and is formally relinquishing his active faculty status.

Born in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1903, Dr. Likert was schooled in the Plains and Rocky Mountain states, but entered the Engineering College at The University of Michigan. Transferring later to the Literary College, from which he was graduated in 1926, he went on to earn a doctorate in psychology from Columbia University in 1932 and to teach in the Psychology Department of New York University. In 1935 he became Director of Research for the Life Insurance Sales Research Bureau. In 1939, he entered government service as Director of Program Surveys for the Department of Agriculture. During the Second World War he undertook also studies of war bond sales, of the psychological effects of strategic bombing, and of prospective consumer expenditures after the war should end. In 1946, accompanied by some of his Washington associates, he came to Ann Arbor to establish the Survey Research Center. In 1948, when that Center was united with the Research Center for Group Dynamics to form the Institute for Social Research, he became director of the new organization.

An international pioneer in organizing statistical research into human behavior and attitudes, Dr. Likert established models of inquiry, which became widely accepted among social scientists, industrial managers, and government planners. He was elected a fellow of the American Psychological Association, president of the American Statistical Association, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and won a number of particular awards for his research and writing. Within the University his colleagues named him a recipient of the Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award. He has served on standing and ad hoc committees having research within their purview. And through his ready counsel and infectious enthusiasm, he proved influential far beyond his formal offices, his unique blend of humane concern and methodological precision stirring emulation among his peers as well as among the generations of students who received technical training at the Institute.
His fellow scientists, both here and nation-wide, are happy to perceive that his enthusiasm and enterprise remain undiminished. And the Regents of the University, who here thank him for his distinguished services and appoint him to the titles Director Emeritus of the Institute for Social Research, and Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Sociology, warmly invite him to honor this institution with his continued personal and professional association.