B . F . SKINNER THE L S T W D Y S My father always spoke admiringly o f h i s grand- father s death. H e died with h i s boots on, he say, approvingly. Sometimes h e would add, That s th e w a y I want t o go. Well, h e came dose. The last f e w months m y father continued t h e pattern of hi s retirement ; u p early to write, breakfast, a walk, appointments with visitors a nd mail until lunch. Afternoons he usually spent r e - laxing with music a n d light reading, getting i n shape f o r t h e next morning s work. T o hi s death, t h e mail never l e t u p . Inevitably among t he letters from professional colleagues h e would get a f e w letters from school students asking h i m t o explain h i s work. Letters t o famous people a r e n o t always well informed. Senator Kennedy i s said t o have received a letter that said, I have picked y o u a s my favorite Senator. C a n y o u tell m e why? T h e letters t o m y father were hardly better. Neverthe- less, h e answered them all, politely suggesting that i f they checked their libraries they could probably find a book called Walden T w o o r Science a n d Human Behavior that would answer their ques- tions. Eight days before hi s death, a s readers of this journal probably know, my father received, from t h e American Psychological Association, t h e first Citation f o r Outstanding Lifetime Contri- bution t o Psychology. The association officials h a d assured t h e family that they would keep m y father from crowds-important because o f h i s heightened susceptibility to infection from leukemia-and they kept their word. A t 1:00 o clock o n August 10th, a limousine appeared a t t h e Skinner home to drive o u r party t o t h e convention hotel. There w e were met an ushered upstairs i n o u r own elevator to a hotel room, like movie stars, m y father r e- marked. f ew minutes before t h e opening session wa s t o begin, w e were ushered back downstairs a nd taken b y a back w a y t o t h e side door of the a u- ditorium. I w a s holding m y father s ar m a s w e entered. Theroom w a packed. second room t o t h e side h a d been opened and it too, w a s over- flowing. When w e h a d taken t w o steps into t h e room everyone stood u p a d began t o applaud. M y father made a n awkward no d o f h i s head i n acknowledgment a s h e continued walking-I could tell h e hadn t expected such a reception. T h e a p- plause w a s thunderous. I t continued a s we made o u r w a y to t he bottom o f the steps a t t h e middle o f t h e stage. I t continued as m y father made h i s way up t h e steps. It continued, undiminished, a s m y father w a s escorted across t h e stage t o h i s chair. He turned around a n d made a gracious b o w of h i s head, b ut there w a s n o sign o f t h e applause letting u p . Finally, P officials interrupted th e applause a n d started the program. After 50 minutes o f pre- liminaries, i t w a s time f o r m y fatherto accept t h e award. I w a s glad that h e h ad decidednot t o u s e a text o r even notes, f o r t h e glaring light from t h e T V camera crews would have made i t impossible f o r h i m t o have seen anything. H e began. President Graham, past-President Matarazzo, distinguished guests, ladies a n d gentlemen ... . H e talked smoothly, t h e wa y I h a d heard h i m talk a t dozens o f conventions, complete with names a nd dates I would have h a d trouble remembering. Th e talk turned to the split i n psychology, o n e part going i n t h e direction o f finding o u t the essence of t h e feeling, t h e essence of t h e cognitive process, a n d the other going i n t h e direction o f references t o contingencies o f reinforcement. He drew a n anal- o g y between t h e difficulty of acceptance of Darwin s natural selection a n d t h e difficulty o f acceptance of Skinner s o w n selection b y consequences, culmi- nating i n t h e statement, S o fa r a s I m concerned, cognitive science i s the creationism o f psychology. Th e whole audience gasped audibly. sprinkling of dapping could b e heard here a nd there. (Clearly t h e split w a s n o t 50-50.) Skinner continued, end- i n g i n just over 1 5 minutes-as h e h a d planned. After being escorted down t h e stairs (again t o a p- All quotes a r e from extemporaneous comments made b y B. F . Skinner upon receiving APA s lifetime award a t t he opening session of t h e American Psychological Association s t h Annual Convention on August 1 0 , 1990, i n Boston. JOURN L O F PPLIED BEH VIOR ANALYSIS, 23(4), 1990 4 0 9
