Leslie H. Hicks

Dr. Leslie H. Hicks, retired Howard University Psychology Professor.

It is with great sadness that the family of Dr. Leslie H. Hicks shares the news of his passing on April 7, 2020, at the age of 92. Leslie H. Hicks, Jr. was born and raised in Washington, D.C. and attended local public schools in the District, including the famous Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, Class of 1944. He was part of the long Dunbar tradition of spawning highly educated, high achieving African Americans whose identities were forged in academic excellence and educational achievement. After 18 months of service in the US Army, stationed in the Philippines, Leslie returned to Howard University to complete his undergraduate studies. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology in 1949, graduating magna cum laude, and would later be inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa honor society as an alumni member. He went on to earn a Master of Arts and PhD in Physiological Psychology from the University of Wisconsin, working under the guidance of Professor Harry Harlow, whose path-breaking experimental work with rhesus monkeys demonstrated the importance of caregiving and companionship to social and cognitive development. An accomplished academic of many firsts, he was one of this country's first African American students to earn a PhD in Physiological Psychology and the first to do so at the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Hicks joined the Howard University faculty in 1954.

A well-respected educator, Dr. Hicks laid the foundation for intellectual growth and development within Howard University's Psychology Department for generations of students. During his time as Chairperson of the Department, Dr. Hicks relentlessly pursued a standard of excellence and shattered long standing perceptions of what minority students can achieve in science. In 1968, he co-founded the PhD Program in Psychology at Howard and established the University as the first Historically Black College and University with a Clinical Psychology Program accredited by the American Psychological Association. Over the past 40+ years, the doctoral program has produced over 375 PhD recipients. His career took him to many heights and to several academic settings where he made substantial contributions to the field of Psychology and Neuroscience.

Dr. Hicks served as an exchange scientist working with Russian physiologists and neuroscientists in the former Soviet Union; he was a Fellow at the Brain Research Institute at UCLA; and was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, colloquially known as, "The Think Tank". He is a published author of numerous research articles related to biological, developmental, clinical, and social psychology, as well as other neuropsychological subjects.

Beyond the laboratory and the classroom, Dr. Hicks was a policy consultant with the APA and the Educational Testing Service. He was also the recipient of several lifetime achievement awards, most recently: The Honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin and the Howard University Alumni Award for Distinguished Postgraduate Achievement in Psychology and Education. Dr. Hicks will be fondly remembered as a distinguished Professor of Psychology who had a passion for both academia and service, one who was widely admired and respected by students and faculty alike. In his nearly sixty-five years of teaching and research, he never grew tired of working with promising students at Howard and continued assisting young graduate students well beyond his formal retirement in 2016.

Outside of his academic and philanthropic pursuits, Dr. Hicks loved jazz, loved spending time with family and friends, talking politics and sports, especially the latest travails of the Redskins. He was as unassuming as he was accomplished, but reflective of the high regard in which he was held, he was an invited member of Washington's historic Cosmos Club, noted for its distinguished members in science, the arts, literature, and public service. He was an active, year-round tennis player, well into his 80s, who relished playing as much as he enjoyed watching and rooting for the game's emerging stars.

Dr. Leslie Hicks is survived by his son, Stephen Leslie Hicks; three grandchildren, Cameron Alexander, Aaron Leslie, and Trevor Jordan; his step-children, Gabrielle and Forest Speaks; a sister-in-law, Jean Jones Hicks, his niece, four nephews, several cousins; and numerous Howard colleagues and longtime friends.

A memorial service honoring his life and legacy of achievements will be held at a future date.

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