John Orr Crites ’50

Born in Kansas City, Mo., he came to Princeton from Millburn (N.J.) High School. He played varsity football and was a member of Dial Lodge. A history major, Jack was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and was awarded the Joline Prize in History.

He served in the Air Force for three years and then earned a Ph.D. in counseling and personnel psychology in 1957. After a year teaching at the University of Texas, he moved to the University of Iowa, where he taught until 1971, and then left to join the University of Maryland faculty. He finished his career at Northwestern University as a professor of psychology, retiring in 1989. He lived in Boulder, Colo., after retirement with his second wife, Norma. She died in 2002, leaving Jack with no survivors.

Among Jack’s many publications, two of the most notable were an encyclopedic textbook, Vocational Psychology: The Study of Vocational Behavior and Development, and Career Maturity Inventory (CMI). CMI was easily the most frequently used measure of adolescent/young adult vocational behavior in education and psychology from the 1970s through the 1990s. A professor emeritus at Iowa said, “I admired — nay, was in awe of — his scholarship in career development.”

Despite some personal tragedies, Jack made his life a success.