Arthur and Carolyn Staats Endowed Legacy Fund

A pioneer in behavioral psychology, Dr. Arthur W. Staats devoted his career to the understanding of complex human behavior. He is best known for his work on the child rearing principal of “time out,” the use of token economies with humans to shape behavior (for example star charts), Psychological Behaviorism, and the unification of the many different areas of psychology. Art was born in 1924, and was raised by a widowed mother in Southern California. They were very poor, but reading and education were highly valued by the family. After serving in the Navy during WWII, Art went back to school under the GI Bill. He earned his doctorate in psychology at UCLA, then in the next 10 years taught at Arizona State University, UC Berkeley, and the University of Wisconsin. In 1966 he became professor at the University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa. Professor Staats wrote prolifically and authored nine books and innumerable journal articles.

It was during his time in post graduate studies at UCLA that Art met fellow doctoral student Carolyn Kaiden. Carolyn was born in 1931 and was raised in Southern California. Carolyn graduated Phi Beta Kappa at UCLA and went on to earn her doctorate in psychology at UCLA. While teaching as a professor at Arizona State University she co-authored a book on psychology with husband Art. Upon the move of the family to Hawai‘i, Dr. Carolyn Staats worked as a clinical psychologist and over the next 40+ years helped hundreds of people in her practice.

Art was an active member of the Punahou Tennis Club and served as its President for several years. Art and Carolyn loved watching their children and grandchildren compete as members of the Punahou boys and girls tennis teams.

Art and Carolyn were very pleased with and thankful for the education that Punahou offered to their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

Dr. Arthur Staats passed at age 97 in 2021, and is survived by Carolyn, daughter Jenny ’77 (Chuck Kelley ’76), son Peter ’81 (Nancy), five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.