SCHUTZ, William C(arl) 1925-2002

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born December 19, 1925, in Chicago, IL; died of a cerebral hemorrhage November 9, 2002, in Muir Beach, CA. Psychologist, educator, consultant, and author. Schutz was known as one of the founders of the Human Potential Movement, advocating open and honest interpersonal communications that influenced a generation of Americans beginning in the 1960s and 1970s. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Schutz earned his Ph.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1951. He then returned to military duty during the Korean War. During the 1950s and 1960s he taught psychology at the University of Chicago, Tufts University, Harvard University, the University of California at Berkeley, and Yeshiva University at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In 1967 he took a position as associate-in-residence and director of the residential program at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. That same year he published his influential work Joy: Expanding Human Awareness, the success of which brought Esalen, an experimental education center, to national prominence. Schutz's book, like the group encounter sessions he conducted at Esalen, advocated total honesty between people in order to resolve social problems. Schutz also promoted this theory when working as a consultant to business corporations or for the military, founding the Will Schutz Associates consulting and training firm in San Francisco in 1980, which he sold in 2001. Schutz followed up Joy with several more books, including Elements of Encounter (1973), Profound Simplicity (1979), and The Human Element: Productivity, Self-Esteem, and the Bottom Line (1984).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

books

Writers Directory, 17th edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 2002.

periodicals

Los Angeles Times, November 16, 2002, p. B21.

San Francisco Chronicle, November 16, 2002, p. A19.

Times (London, England), January 1, 2003.