Remembering Vic Laties (February 2, 1926 - February 3, 2020)

Abstract

Victor G. Laties encountered pharmacology before engaging with the science of behavior. Interrupting undergraduate work at Tufts for service in the navy, he became a pharmacist's mate during the 1940s. He met Bernard Weiss while they were graduate students at the University of Rochester. Then, while Vic was teaching at Brown, Ogden Lindsley demonstrated the power of operant contingencies to him at a chance meeting. Vic later moved to Johns Hopkins and was soon joined by Bernie. Their collaborative work in pharmacology and behavior continued after both returned to the University of Rochester. At the medical school Bernie expanded his research in behavioral toxicology as Vic devoted more of his time to editorial activities and to the Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, eventually serving for more than half a century as Executive Editor of its journals. This account describes some of that service and some aspects of Vic's later years, during which he remained active in retirement as well as he could while he and his wife Marty coped with his progressive symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. Though his remembering gradually faded, he completed a memoir and continued a rich and memorable life with family and friends.