About Phil Runkel

Phil passed away on June 7, 2007, three weeks shy of his 90th birthday. The note below was composed in 2003.

At various times and places, Philip J. Runkel has assisted a land surveyor, staged and directed theatricals, ridden in a Goodyear blimp, worked as an engineering draftsman for a project to rebuild the Panama Canal, and marched in civil rights protests. He holds a U.S. patent in switchboard circuits. He taught geometry in high schools and topographic computing in the army.
     For the last 50 years, he has taught and written in the fields of social psychology, research methods, and organizational consulting. His work as an organizational consultant to schools began in 1968. He has not yet learned to play the piano.
      His publications include Research on Human Behavior: A Systematic Guide to Method (with Joseph E. McGrath), Handbook of Organization Development in Schools (4th edition, with Richard A. Schmuck), Casting Nets and Testing Specimens: Two Grand Methods of Psychology, People as Living Things: The Psychology of Perceptual Control, several other books, and several dozen articles and chapters.

Philip J. Runkel was Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Education at the University of Oregon.