Richard O. Rouse Jr., 96

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Richard Oliver Rouse Jr., 96, the Mary A. and William Wirt Warren Professor of Psychology, emeritus at Williams College, died Sunday, April 16, 2017, at Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield.

Born in Dorchester on July 9, 1920, son of Richard O. and Lillian Seaboyer Rouse, he attended schools there, graduating from North Quincy High School in 1937 and Harvard College in 1941. He earned his doctorate in psychology from Yale in 1949.

During World War II, Rouse served as an aviation psychologist in the Army Air Forces at the Aero-Medical Labs, Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio. His research was on vision and light adaptation.

With the exception of one year as an instructor in psychology at the University of Connecticut and summers at Johns Hopkins and Wisconsin, Mr. Rouse's entire teaching career was at Williams College.

When he arrived in 1948, there were only two positions and the department did not offer a psychology major. By the time he retired in 1983, the department had expanded greatly. He taught a variety of courses in experimental psychology and served as department chairman for 13 years. From 1968 to 1971, he was director of the Williams-NSF Summer Institute in Experimental Psychology. A growing interest in psychoanalytic theory led to work with David Rapaport at the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge.

He spent three sabbaticals in England with his family, two at the Applied Psychology Unit at Cambridge and one at Sussex University. He developed a lifelong love of most things British. During his long retirement, he made almost yearly trips to Europe, North Africa, the Western United States and Canada.

Mr. Rouse loved sailing. He learned to sail small boats at age 11 on the Weweantic River at Wareham, where his parents had a cottage. He raced dinghies at Harvard and later chartered larger boats from Maine to the Caribbean. When his eyesight no longer allowed him to captain, he became a yearly passenger on the American Eagle, a schooner sailing the Maine coast.

He was a longtime volunteer at Recording for the Blind and the Williamstown Board of Trade tourist booth. He took great pleasure participating in the weekly meetings of a local Italian conversation group.

He was preceded in death by his brother, James; his wives Mariam Gilbert and Peggy Gates, and a son, James.

He leaves his wife, Regina Solzbacher Rouse; two sons, Robert David Rouse of New York City, and Richard Oliver Rouse III and his wife, Margaret Rogers, of Seattle; a daughter, Linda Gates Rouse of Albuquerque, N.M.; three grandchildren, Grayson Starner, Katharine Rouse and Malcolm Rouse.

FUNERAL NOTICE: A memorial service celebrating the life of Mr. Rouse will be held at the Williams College Faculty House on Saturday, May 20, at 11 a.m. Guests will be encouraged to share memories of Richard.

Donations in his honor may be made to the SWCA Southlawn Cemetery Fund or to the Williamstown Historical Museum through Flynn & Dagnoli-Montagna Home for Funerals, Central Chapels, 74 Marshall St., North Adams, MA 01247.