Mary Ward Hicks (1920 – circa 2018) was an American psychologist specializing in

family therapy Family therapy (also referred to as family counseling, family systems therapy, marriage and family therapy, couple and family therapy) is a branch of psychology and clinical social work that works with families and couples in intimate relationsh ...

, and a

professor emerita ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

Early life and education

Mary Agnes Ward was born in

Nyssa, Oregon Nyssa is a city in Malheur County, Oregon, United States. The population was 3,267 at the 2010 census. The city is located along the Snake River on the Idaho border, in the region of far eastern Oregon known as the "Treasure Valley". It is pa ...

and raised in

Weiser, Idaho Weiser ( ) is a city in the rural western part of the U.S. state of Idaho and the county seat of Washington County. With its mild climate, the city supports farm, orchard, and livestock endeavors in the vicinity. The city sits at the confluence o ...

, the daughter of George P. Ward and Marian E. McDonald Ward (later Gribbin). She graduated from Payette High School in 1938. She attended

Whitman College Whitman College is a private liberal arts college in Walla Walla, Washington. The school offers 53 majors and 33 minors in the liberal arts and sciences, and it has a student-to-faculty ratio of 9:1. Whitman was the first college in the Pacifi ...

and studied education as an undergraduate at the

University of Idaho The University of Idaho (U of I, or UIdaho) is a public land-grant research university in Moscow, Idaho. It is the state's land-grant and primary research university,, and the lead university in the Idaho Space Grant Consortium. The University ...

, graduating in 1942. She was a member of the

Delta Gamma Delta Gamma (), commonly known as DG, is a women's fraternity in the United States and Canada with over 250,000 initiated members. It has 150 collegiate chapters and more than 200 alumnae groups. The organization's executive office is in Columbus ...

sorority at Idaho. Hicks earned a master's degree in educational psychology at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, in 1953, and completed a Ph.D. in child development and family relations at

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

. Her 1966 doctoral dissertation was ''An empirical evaluation of textbook assumptions about engagement''. Her doctoral advisor was

Carlfred Broderick Carlfred Bartholomew Broderick (April 7, 1932 – July 27, 1999) was an American psychologist, sociologist, and family therapist, a scholar of marriage and family relations at the University of Southern California, and an author of several books. ...

Career

Hicks taught at

Gooding High School Gooding High School is a public high school located in Gooding, Idaho, United States. It is the main high school operated by the Gooding School District. Athletics Gooding High School is classified as a 3A school (enrollment between 320 and 639 ...

after college. She taught at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

, Pennsylvania State University,

Southern Illinois University Southern Illinois University is a system of public universities in the southern region of the U.S. state of Illinois. Its headquarters is in Carbondale, Illinois. Board of trustees The university is governed by the nine member SIU Board of Tr ...

, and

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also ...

. She joined the

faculty in 1973. She was a professor of family and child sciences, and training director for the interdivisional doctoral program in family therapy. As director of the university's Marriage and Family Therapy Center, she commented on changing laws around marriage in the news, and spoke at community events.

Recognition

Hicks was the 1974 winner of the Ernest G. Osborne Teaching Award of the

National Council on Family Relations The National Council on Family Relations (abbreviated NCFR) is an American nonprofit, multidisciplinary learned society dedicated to research on all aspects of the family. Founded in 1938 as the National Conference on Family Relations, it was re ...

, and the 2003 winner of the Training Award of the

American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy The American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) is a professional association in the field of marriage and family therapy representing more than 50,000 marriage and family therapists throughout the United States, Canada, and abroad ...

. In 1995, she received the Distinguished Service to Families Award from the Southeastern Council on Family Relations. She was elected president of the Groves Conference on Marriage and Family in 1993, and named as a lifetime member of the Conference in 2011. An outdoor bench at Florida State is dedicated with a plaque in her honor. There is a Mary Hicks Endowed Scholarship Fund at Florida State, to support doctoral students in the Marriage and Family Therapy program.

Personal life

Mary Ward married poultry geneticist Amp Frank Hicks Jr., in 1945. They met while he was at a hospital in Utah, and she was a

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...

worker there, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. They had a daughter, Lorna. Mary Ward died in about 2018, in her late nineties.

Selected publications

* * * * Also published a
Volume 10, issue 4 of ''Contemporary Family Therapy''
December 1988. *

References

External links

*
A photograph of Mary W. Hicks
later in life, at the

website {{DEFAULTSORT:Hicks, Mary W. University of Idaho alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni Pennsylvania State University alumni Academic staff of the University of British Columbia Pennsylvania State University faculty Southern Illinois University faculty Virginia Tech faculty Florida State University faculty 1920 births 2018 deaths 20th-century American psychologists American women psychologists 21st-century American women