Robert Sommer (1929-2021)

Memorializes Robert Sommer (1929-2021). Sommer's enduring commitment, reflected in A Practical Guide to Behavioral Research (1997) coauthored with his wife Barbara, was to evaluate all kinds of environments, from psychiatric institutions to cooperative grocery stores, bicycle paths, farmer markets, and funeral homes. Starting in 1969 with Personal Space: The Behavioral Basis of Design, Bob helped usher in a new field, Environmental Psychology. Personal Space was the first of several books that shaped, and continue to shape, the architecture and design professions. In 1963, Bob came to University of California Davis, and in 1965, he became chair of the Psychology Department. Bob brought fresh and innovative thinking not just to his own writing and research, but to administration. It is hard to imagine any other academic being asked by the university to chair and revive three other departments: Environmental Design, Rhetoric and Communication, and Art. Bob died February 27, 2021. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).