Dr. Pennypacker receives SCS Lifetime Achievement Award

Last Updated on Friday, 06 March 2009 08:14 Written by SCS Administration Friday, 06 March 2009 08:13

 The Lifetime Achievement Award of the Standard Celeration Society was presented to Dr. Henry "Hank" Pennypacker at IPTC2008 in November, 2008.

At the 2008 International Precision Teaching and Celeration conference in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Henry "Hank" Pennypacker. The text of Dr. Carl Binder's presentation speech can be read by clicking below.

      Professor Emeritus at the University of Florida, Dr. Pennypacker has been a major figure in behavior analysis through his contributions in research, teaching, and service.  A career-long colleague, friend, fellow musician and co-conspirator with Dr. Ogden Lindsley – founder of precision teaching and creator of the standard celeration chart – Dr. Pennypacker made important contributions in the early development and dissemination of precision teaching and standard celeration charting. He helped establish Florida as a model for behavior-based treatment of developmental disabilities, and helped to create Precision Teaching of Florida, introducing PT for both learners with disabilities and eventually for general education students in Florida public schools. This led to sponsorship in Florida of some of the very first national Precision Teaching Conferences.

      Hank was first author of both editions of the Handbook of the Standard Celeration Chart, the technical “bible” of standard charting. His book (with Dr. Jim Johnston), Strategies and Tactics in Behavioral Research, now in its second edition, has become a classic and essential reference on methodology in behavior analysis, and also for those who wish to conduct precision teaching research.  A lesser known publication, Behavior: Its units, dimensions, and measurement, which Hank co-authored with Johnston and Dr. Bea Barrett (the only other recipient to date of our Lifetime Achievement Award), presents what is among the most compelling and precise descriptions ever published of the role and characteristics of measurement in behavior analysis.  Dr. Pennypacker wrote insightfully in several publications about how celeration, the standard measure of learning derived from the standard celeration chart, could be used to make educational evaluation and accountability truly performance-based – for schools, districts, and entire systems.  Practically and intellectually, he has been a pioneer and a great communicator of important ideas.

      Dr. Pennypacker encouraged early efforts by precision teachers to “go private” – or as he put it, to “buy in without selling out” – during the late 1970’s and early 80’s, when many of the first private sector precision teaching learning centers and programs began.  As mentor and senior colleague, he befriended and gently encouraged countless young scientists and practitioners, far more than his prodigious list of formal students suggests. He made important contributions to instructional design and implementation by combining precision teaching with the personalized system of instruction for university students. And he has offered his wise and always-engaging perspective as discussant for numerous panels and symposia at the Association for Behavior Analysis, for those lucky enough to grab a place on his dance card.

      Dr. Pennypacker served as President of the Association for Behavior Analysis in 1986-87 and has been an active Trustee as well as Chairman of the Board for the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies.

      Dr. Pennypacker is perhaps best known within and outside the field of behavior analysis as the developer of methods and devices for effective training of self-examination for breast cancer, and for founding a company (Mammatech) to further this potentially life-saving effort. This work has been widely recognized in the behavioral medicine and cancer prevention communities. Like his earlier support and advancement of precision teaching, Mammatech in many ways sums up the character and the contributions of this great man.  A thoughtful philosopher of science, disciplined scientist and practitioner, visionary leader, and caring human being – all of these qualities come together in his efforts to address painful, pressing, and scientifically challenging issues related to health and education. 

      With enormous gratitude for his contributions and friendship, we are honored to present Dr. Henry S. Pennypacker with the Standard Celeration Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award.  

Drafted by C. Binder. Reviewed and edited by J. Eshleman, C. Merbitz, M. Fabrizio for the SCS