WILMA THOMPSON DONAHUE, who has been identified with the Division of Gerontology ever since its inception, has completed her terminal furlough and is embarking on her retirement.

Dr. Donahue earned three degrees from the University, completing her doctorate in 1937. She became then an instructor in the Psychology Department and a psychologist in the Institute for Human Adjustment, serving concurrently as a mental hygienist in the Health Service. In 1945 she assumed direction of the Bureau of Psychological Services in the Institute for Human Adjustment, and, after pursuing long research into the condition of the aged and the otherwise disabled, became, in 1951, chairman of the newly founded Division of Gerontology. In 1966, when The University of Michigan-Wayne State University Institute of Gerontology was founded, she became its co-director. She presided continuously, also, over the University's annual Conference on Aging, held on campus each summer since 1949.

Dr. Donahue's work was facilitated by her many public offices: as chairman of the Michigan Commission on Aging; as a member of the President's Task Force on Aging and of special committees of the Office of Economic Opportunity and the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; and as expert witness before state and national legislative committees. She currently serves on President Nixon's twelve-member Advisory Council on Consumer Problems and Needs. She has also been an officer and committee member of state, national, and international professional associations and assemblies. But her ultimate mission was neither political nor, in the narrow sense, professional: it was educational. She sought to elicit the truth about old people, especially those distressed in mind, body, or estate, and to convince the public of that truth. Considering that her career in the speciality of gerontology spanned only a little more than twenty years, she enjoyed an astounding success.

Appointing Dr. Donahue now Director Emeritus of the Division of Gerontology and Lecturer Emeritus in Psychology, the University Regents warmly congratulate her on her humane accomplishments, and wish her a long continued fruition in her own retirement.