Harry Kay (psychologist)

Kay attended Rotherham Grammar School and then in 1938 went to the University of Cambridge to read for a degree English. However, World War II intervened and he enlisted in the Royal Artillery, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. In 1946 he returned to Cambridge to complete a degree in Moral Sciences. He remained at Cambridge in the Nuffield Unit for Research into Problems of Ageing.

He moved to the University of Oxford in 1951 as a lecturer in experimental psychology. He continued his research and was awarded a PhD. In 1960, he was appointed Chair of Psychology at the University of Sheffield. It was here that he established the Social and Applied Psychology Research Unit.[1]

In 1973, he was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University of Exeter. He remained there until his retirement in 1984.[2]

He was active in the British Psychological Society becoming its president in 1971. In his presidential address, he promoted 'giving psychology away'.[3]

His early research interest was experimental work on motor skills[4] and then moved into the more general area of occupational psychology.

• 1971 - 1972 - President, British Psychological Society
• President, Experimental Psychology Society
• President, Psychology Section, British Association for the Advancement of Science
• Hon DSc – University of Sheffield
• Hon DSc – University of Exeter
• 1981 – CBE