Kenneth Eells

1913-1973

 

Kenneth Eells, former Institute psychologist, died on December 8 at his home near Springville California.  Dr. Eells, who was a native of Washington, received his AB in economics at George Washington University in 1937.  His AM (1942) and his PhD (1948) were earned at the University of Chicago in the field of tests and measurements.  He is nationally known for his work at that time on intelligence and cultural differences, and for the intelligence tests he devised Ð called the Eells Games Ð which were one of the earliest attempts to provide fairer evaluation of minority-group abilities.

 

After working for several years in various areas of statistical analysis, Dr. Eells became associate professor of psychology and San Diego State College, and from 1952 to 1955 he was a psychologist with the U. S. Naval Personnel Research Field Activity in San Diego.  He returned to Chicago in 1955 to become counselor and associate professor of psychology at the University of Illinois.  In1961 he accepted the Caltech appointment, and he remained at the Institute until ill health forced his retirement in 1969.

 

Dr. Eells was coauthor of a number of books concerning evaluation of secondary schools, social class in America, and cultural differences in intelligence.  The subjects of his many articles in professional journals ranged from methods of evaluating and reporting educational progress to assessing the prevalence of the use of LSD and marijuana.  His booklet, Drugs and the Caltech Student, was first published in 1968.  It was not only useful to the Institute community but was so widely requested by other colleges attempting to formulate reasonable, informed policies relating to drug use hat it had to be reissued in 1969.