John Roosevelt Boettiger

Companionable and hermetic, tender-minded and good-humored, devoted father, grandfather and friend, professor, writer and photographer.

John Roosevelt Boettiger, PhD, served for 20 years as Professor of Human Development at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, of which he was founding faculty member. He created and was chairman of Hampshire's interdisciplinary Human Development Program.

Leaving Hampshire to work with graduate students in clinical psychology, John was Professor of Psychology and Dean of Student Affairs at the California School of Professional Psychology.

He is Vice-President and Treasurer of the Christopher Reynolds Foundation, on whose board he has served for over 30 years. Trained as a political scientist at Columbia University before moving to a career in psychology, John taught at Amherst College, was a consultant to and member of the Social Science Department of the RAND Corporation, and briefly served as a desk officer at the U.S. Department of State.

Earlier in his career, John wrote widely on educational and political themes, including two books on U.S. policy in Vietnam. He has an interest in the intersections of social history, narrative and psychology, themes explored in his book, A Love in Shadow, published by W.W. Norton.

From 1999 to 2003 he edited two online journals, Reckonings (precursor of the present blog) and an electronic form of The Daily Reprobate, a journal of social commentary allegedly founded by Mark Twain in 1866, gratefully sustained by his inspiration. The spirit of the Reprobate will find its way into Reckonings.

John continues to write and speak on issues of child and adult development, narrative, psychology and religion, and when sufficiently provoked--more often than not during these dark days--politics.

He has four grown children and seven grandchildren, and lives in Vikersund, Norway with his wife Leigh McCullough, who teaches and conducts research on psychotherapy at Harvard Medical School and in Norway.