Donald I. Tepas

Donald I. Tepas, of Mansfield Center, passed away peacefully with his family by his side at Hartford Hospital on January 9, 2015. Born April 7, 1933 in Buffalo, NY, he was the son of the late Rev. Irving C. Tepas and Dorothy (Scheuerle) Tepas. He leaves his wife of 55 years, Susan, his daughter Katherine, his granddaughter Gwendalin, his sister, Nancy Tepas of Buffalo, NY, and his son Matthew. Donald graduated from the University of Buffalo. Drafted into the Army as a graduate student, he served as a graduate teaching assistant in UB's Psychology Department. He finished his doctoral classwork and exams, and joined the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Washington, DC in 1959. There he was a member of the multi-disciplinary team which introduced and developed the first electronic data-processing capabilities for electrophysiological data. Upon being discharged from the Army in 1962, Donald joined Honeywell, Inc. in Minneapolis, MN in the Human Factors Group. He was awarded his Ph.D. in 1963. He was asked to teach some classes at the University of Minnesota and realized how much he missed and enjoyed teaching. As a result, in 1966 he joined the Psychology Department at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, MO, developing the Sleep and Sensory Processes Laboratories. While at SLU, he conducted a major study of the sleep and lives of shiftworkers and this would be his major interest for the rest of his life. In 1967, he was chosen to be the first psychologist in an exchange between the National Academy of Sciences of the U. S. A. and the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, and spent 5 weeks meeting and lecturing all over Czechoslovakia. In 1978, Dr. Tepas became the head of the Psychology Department and Director of the Sleep Laboratory at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, IL. In 1982 he established a consultancy, Work Systems Research. He joined the University of Connecticut in 1985 to create a graduate program in Industrial & Organizational Psychology and the next year established the Psychology Department's Ergonomics Laboratory. Upon retiring in 1998, he did research for UCONN's CT Transportation Institute. Donald founded the Society for Computers in Psychology and was a member of the International Commission on Occupational Health. He was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Psychological Association, and the ICOH's Working Time Society. Over many years, he presented papers at professional meetings all over Europe, in Brazil, Mexico, Australia, Singapore, and Japan. His was a very productive and rewarding life. He immensely enjoyed the companionship of his family, the relationships he developed over the years with his colleagues throughout the world, and the work of encouraging his excellent students. He especially delighted in travel and camping trips with his family, and was an avid fan of UCONN teams, the Red Sox and the Patriots. He will be profoundly missed. There were no public services. If making a donation in his memory is desired, please consider the Spondylitis Association of America at www.spondylitis.org .