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One of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century, Julian B. Rotter, died at the age of 97 on January 6, 2014, at his home in Mansfield, Connecticut. As noted in the citation for his American Psychological Association (APA) Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions, “his pioneering social learning framework . . . transformed behavioral approaches to personality and clinical psychology. He integrated the concepts of expectancy and reinforcement and built an enduring early bridge between the psychology of learning and its diverse social, clinical, and personality applications. His seminal studies of the variable of internal versus external locus of control provided the foundation for years of prolific research on choice and perceived control in several disciplines . . . . Julian Rotter, by his writing, teaching, and personal example, . . . profoundly changed theory and practice in the field” (American Psychologist, 1989, p. 625).

Jules was born on October 22, 1916, in Brooklyn, New York, the third son of Jewish immigrant parents, Abraham Rotter and Bessie Goldstein Rotter. His father was the owner of a profitable business until the Depression forced its close. The economic downturn greatly affected Jules’s family, leading him to realize how much environmental influences can shape one’s life. Throughout grade school and high school Jules’s major interests were sports and reading, especially books and articles in psychology and philosophy. He attended Brooklyn College from 1933 to 1937 during the midst of the Great Depression, majoring in chemistry because he believed it would provide him more job opportunities. Still, he graduated with more credits in psychology (and almost as many in philosophy) than in chemistry.

Jules was heavily influenced in college by two teachers, Solomon Asch, by his intense involvement in the controversy between Gestalt and Thorndikian views of learning, and Austin Wood, by his inspiring lectures on the scientific method. Jules also came under the influence of Alfred Adler, who had recently come to the United States and was teaching at...