George De Vos was born in Detroit, MI on July 22, 1922. After serving under the U.S. Army intelligence during World War II, he returned to his studies at the University of Chicago, earning a B.A. in Sociology in 1946. He then went on to earn an M.A. in Anthropology (1948) and a PhD in Psychology (1951).
De Vos' professional career began at the Neuropsychiatric Institute in Chicago, where he worked under a public health fellowship from 1949-1950. He then completed an intern training at the Elgin State Mental Hospital in 1953, at which time he accepted a Fullbright Fellowship at Nagoya National University's Department of Neuropsychology in Nagoya, Japan. Upon returning to the U.S., De Vos took a post as assistant professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan before moving to Berkeley, California in 1957 for an associate professor position in U.C. Berkeley's School of Social Welfare. From 1962 to 1966, he had a joint appointment in social welfare and anthropology. In 1965, he accepted a position as full professor of Anthropology, a position he held until his retirement in 1991.
De Vos' contributions to the fields of culture and pursonality studies, psychological anthropology and the cross-cultural application of Rorschach tests and the Thematic Apperception Test earned him recognition from colleagues and academics. His bibliography consists of over 200 scholarly articles and 20 books.
De Vos died of congestive heart disease on July 9, 2010 at the age of 87.
From the guide to the George A. De Vos papers, 1942-2005, (The Bancroft Library.)
