Fordham University has established the Anne Anastasi Chair in Psychology, and has further endowed the Anne Anastasi Memorial Scholarships with a $3.8 million gift from the estate of Anne Anastasi, Ph.D., who was a longtime Fordham faculty member and chair of the Department of Psychology.
“With this gift, the estate of Dr. Anastasi leaves a profound and lasting legacy in the study of psychology at Fordham, and in the field overall,” said Stephen Freedman, Ph.D., senior vice president for academic affairs and chief academic officer. “Fordham has been enriched not just by Dr. Anastasi’s financial contributions, but by her scholarship, long service and intellectual leadership.”
The Anne Anastasi Professorship in Quantitative Psychology and Psychometrics was endowed with $2 million, and the Anne Anastasi Memorial Scholarships received another $1.8 million. During her lifetime, Anastasi donated $100,000 to the University to fund fellowships for graduate students in psychology; the additional $1.8 million will support qualified graduate students in psychology, with a preference for the study of psychometrics or testing programs.
Anastasi was a member of the University faculty from 1947 to 1985, and chaired the Department of Psychology from 1968 through 1979. Upon her retirement in 1979, she was named Professor Emerita, and awarded an honorary doctor of science degree. Her research and scholarship at the University established her as one of the preeminent psychologists and academic scholars of her era.
Home-schooled as a child, Anastasi was admitted to Barnard College at age fifteen. She received her doctorate from Columbia University in 1929, and went on to teach at Barnard and Queens College of the City University of New York before coming to Fordham. During her career Anastasi served as president of the Eastern Psychological Association, as president of two divisions of the American Psychological Association and as president of the American Psychological Foundation. She died in 2001 at the age of 92.
