James J. Jenkins
The City University of New York
Bill has very strong Minnesota roots — both he and Kay are Minnesota PhDs. Bill was recruited under the belief of the Chair, Richard M Elliott, that Minnesota would have to find their good graduate students at home. Estes, Meehl, MacCorquodale, Guttman, Baron, and others were all local students who stayed and went to graduate school at Minnesota. Bill’s father still lived in Minneapolis, so Bill came back from time to time. One time after he gave a colloquium, I entertained Bill and the other faculty at my home. Gardner Lindzey, a gregarious man if there ever was one, tried late in the evening to get Bill to talk with a long preamble relating to the time they had both been at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. At the conclusion of his remarks, Gardner said something like, “It was wonderful, wasn’t it?” After a suitable pause, Bill nodded agreement. That was all. Gardner gave up and went home.
That evening, I drove Bill to his father’s house and to my amazement, he talked fluently the whole way about his student days at Minnesota.
The lore of Bill as a student, however, was in keeping with his reluctance to speak. In the compulsory doctoral seminar conducted by Elliott, it is said that there was a long violent debate on some issue. Bill remained silent. Finally, Elliott said, “Bill, what do you think about this?” Whereupon, Bill went slowly to the board, analyzed the problem, settled the issue, and then quietly sat down. Discussion over!
While Bill starred in many places during his career, he is fondly remembered as one of Minnesota’s own. All of us will miss him.
View atimeline of William K. Estes life and achievements.
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