Professor Emeritus

Frederick G. Humphrey, Professor Emeritus

Professor Emeritus Frederick G. Humphrey, joined the University of Connecticut faculty in 1969 and retired in 1991 after 26 years of service as a member of the School of Family Studies Faculty and clinical faculty member of the School's Marriage and Family Therapy Program.

Dr. Humphrey studied Human Sexuality under Masters and Johnson in St. Louis, and under the Sorrel's at Yale University. He has been a Certified Sex Therapist and a member of the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT).

Humphrey received his doctorate in Counseling Psychology with a major in Marital Therapy from the University of Pennsylvania. He trained and worked at the Marriage Council of Philadelphia, which was part of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. The Marriage Council was started by the pioneer marriage counselor, Dr. Emily Mudd, in 1932.

Professor Humphrey came to the University of Connecticut in 1965. As a Professor of Family Studies, he began the Marital and Family Therapy training program and taught at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. He developed the human sexuality courses offered in the school. During the late 1960's Professor Humphrey was the Assistant Director of summer institutes on Human Sexuality at the University of Connecticut where educators and researchers from around the US came to study.

Dr. Humphrey has been a member of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) since 1960. He served on the National Board of Directors from 1972 to 1980. During that time, he held the offices of President, Vice President, and Secretary. He also served as the President of the Connecticut division of AAMFT from 1976-1978. Professor Humphrey helped initiate the Journal of Marriage and Family Therapy, and became the journal's longest serving Associate Editor before retiring from that role in 1999.

In more recent years Dr. Humphrey has remained involved in professional organizations as a site visitor for the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education. Dr. Humphrey has maintained his interest in marital issues as a Vermont Justice of the Peace. In this capacity he performs weddings and civil union ceremonies for both straight and gay couples. In the town of Guilford , VT.  He is a member of the Volunteer Fire Department, where he is a Trustee and radio dispatcher. He is Chairman of the Guilford Board of Selectman, a part-time role that occupies much of his time in running his small rural town.

Dr. Humphrey is a Past President of the Guilford Historical Society, where he is responsible for programs of historical concern and for the maintenance of historical buildings. He also serves as a Supervisor for the Windham County (VT) Natural Resources Conservation District. He remains an active partner in his family's 250 year old Cherry Brook Christmas Tree farm in Canton Center, CT. Dr. Humphrey has four grandchildren, two in Vermont, and two in New Jersey. His hobbies include skiing, hunting, and operating his farm tractors.

Adapted from an article by Heather Risser in the Summer, 1996 School of Family Studies Newsletter and 2001 additions based on a conversation with Dr. Ryder and Dr. Humphrey.


Dr. Robert G. Ryder, Professor Emeritus

Robert has held positions of great responsibility: Chief of the NIMH Section on Family Development, Dean of the School of Family Studies, Director of the Marriage and Family Therapy Programs, Chair of the Willington Board of Education, Member of the Editorial Board for Family Process and President of its corporation, Professor, Clinical Supervisor, and husband and father. With each of these responsibilities have come tests of wisdom, principle, humanity, and the ability to exercise personal and institutional authority. With each test, he has responded with mindfulness and with consideration both for the needs of the institutions he served and the persons whose lives his decisions would affect. - Dr. Les Strong

Dr. Ryder spent his first year at the University of Connecticut as a Department Head, ending the year as Acting Dean of the School of Home Economics. In the summer of 1976 – or as the story goes - On April Fools Day of the following year, Dr. Ryder was offered the Deanship of the school – following his successful effort to rename it the School of Home Economics and Family Studies.

Dr. Ryder remained the Dean for a dozen years, successfully changing its name one more time to the School of Family Studies as it is known today. The renaming was one step in a series of transformations that took hold while he was Dean. The bridges constructed during his tenure helped to strengthen and shape the School’s foundation and guide its advancement.

• In 1975, the erstwhile major of Child Development and Family Relations was changed to Human Development and Family Relations to reflect an interest in the entire lifespan of human development.
• The doctoral program in the School of Education was moved to Family Studies, thus acquiring the first Ph.D. granting program for the School.
• Family Studies had already been training Marriage and Family Therapists, and Robert worked with Fred Humphrey to develop an AAMFT Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, and is recognized for the central role he had in the transformation of the organization into a viable national group. The move to accredit the programs was part of the larger effort to legitimize the profession and train its future generations.
• Dr. Humphrey served as the first director of the accredited programs, followed by Dr. Ryder who served in this capacity while still Dean of the School.
• Although the year before he joined the faculty, the University of Connecticut Trustees rejected a plan for a daycare center in the school, the Administration approved changes in the School’s experimental childcare activities.

Outside of his work in the School of Family Studies, Dr. Ryder was actively involved with the Women’s Studies Program from 1976 to 1979 as the only male member of the University-wide Women’s Studies Advisory Board. Among the faculty he hired for the School of Family Studies was Irene Brown, who served for a time as the Director of Women’s Studies.

On the National Scene, Dr. Ryder became a Commissioner on the Accreditation Commission associated with AAMFT, and chaired the group that developed a complete rewrite of the accreditation standards, setting the model that is essentially in place today. Before coming to Connecticut, he had been President of the Groves Conference on Marriage and the Family. He became a member of the Board of Directors of Family Process, Inc., publishers of the Journal, Family Process. This was the first and then leading publication for Family Therapy in the United States. Later (in 1992) he became President of that not for profit corporation, inheriting a business management setup in which embezzlement significantly disabled the corporation. He reorganized the Journal, managed to secure credit lines to make up for some of the missing money, and kept the Journal going until he left Family Process, in 2002. He was made a lifetime member of Groves for his leadership services, and received the NCFR award for Distinguished Service to Family Therapy.

Robert’s scholarship adds another bridge that connects his career work to the territory he traveled and the intentions he held across the span of his career. He published the book entitled The Realistic Therapist (1988) and over 50 professional papers on issues such as research methodology, marriage and relationships, and professional ethics.

Robert’s career path went full circle when he took on the Directorship of the MFT programs for a second time, serving in this position for close to decade. He retired from the University and the Directorship in the Summer of 2003, but leaves a path open to the MFT Program while it makes this next transition forward.

By Rigazio-DiGilio, S. A. (Fall, 2003) Based on conversations with Dr. Ryder and his family members and professional colleagues.