Michael Wertheimer (psychologist)
Michael Matthew Wertheimer (March 20, 1927 – December 23, 2022) was a German-born American psychologist and Professor Emeritus at the University of Colorado Boulder. His work explored cognition, psycholinguistics, and the history of psychology.
Born in Berlin, he moved to the United States with his family in 1933 and became a citizen in 1939. He earned a BA in psychology from Swarthmore College in 1947, an MA from Johns Hopkins in 1949, and a PhD in experimental psychology from Harvard in 1952. Wertheimer began teaching at the University of Colorado Boulder in 1955 and remained there until his retirement in 1993.
He was active in professional organizations, including serving as president of the Society for the Teaching of Psychology and the Rocky Mountain Psychological Association, and he contributed to the Condon Committee. His awards included the American Psychological Foundation Distinguished Teaching Award (1983), the APA Distinguished Career Contributions to Education and Training in Psychology Award (1990), and the APA Award for Outstanding Contributions to Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology (2009). He was inducted into Psi Chi.
Wertheimer was the son of Max Wertheimer, a founder of Gestalt psychology, and Anni Caro. His parents divorced in 1942. He married Nancy MacKaye in 1950; they had three children before divorcing in 1965. He married Marilyn Schuman in 1970. He published many works, including his memoir Facets of an Academic's Life (2020). Wertheimer died on December 23, 2022, at age 95.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 20:50 (CET).