Brandeis Magazine

Richard Held, of Northampton, Massachusetts, a brain scientist known for his trailblazing work in human perception and a former chair of Brandeis’ psychology department, died on Nov. 22. After receiving a BS in engineering from Columbia and serving as a radar officer on a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier during World War II, he studied gestalt psychology with Wolfgang Köhler at Swarthmore and obtained his PhD in experimental psychology from Harvard in 1952. He served as chair of the recently formed psychology department at Brandeis, then moved in 1962 to MIT, where he was chair of the Department of Psychology and Brain Science. Richard was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He leaves his wife, Doris; his children, Lucas, Julia and Andrew; and two grandchildren.