Wilbert J. McKeachie

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Wilbert J. McKeachie (August 24, 1921 – June 12, 2019) was an American psychologist and longtime University of Michigan professor. He led major psychology organizations, including as president of the American Psychological Association (APA), the American Psychological Foundation (APF), and the American Association of Higher Education. He wrote McKeachie’s Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers, a foundational guide for college teaching first published in 1951, with editions continuing for decades.

McKeachie was born in Clarkston, Michigan, the son of a teacher. He won a scholarship to Michigan State Normal College (now Eastern Michigan University), where he studied math and minored in history and English, aiming to become a high school teacher in 1942. He worked on a General Motors assembly line and played piano in bands. After a brief period as a rural minister, he married Virginia Mack. In World War II he served in the Navy as a radar and communications officer on a destroyer in the Pacific.

In 1945 he entered the University of Michigan to study psychology. As a teaching fellow under Harold Guetzkow, he became interested in research on teaching and did doctoral work on social-psychological factors in college classrooms. He earned his PhD in 1949 and joined Michigan’s faculty, later serving 10 years as chair of the psychology department. In 1950 he distributed a manual to teaching assistants that evolved into McKeachie’s Teaching Tips. He helped create the Combined Program in Education and Psychology and the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at Michigan.

McKeachie’s leadership extended to the APA presidency in 1976, and he also led the APF and various academic organizations. He served on many editorial boards and received several honorary degrees. He continued teaching until age 85, and he credited his long career to time spent playing fast-pitch softball, including three no-hitters in 1976. He had two daughters, a granddaughter, and a great-granddaughter. He passed away in 2019 at age 97.

In 1980 the Society for the Teaching of Psychology created the Wilbert J. McKeachie Teaching Excellence Award, originally for early-career teachers or graduate students; since 2005, a separate award honors graduate students.