Prothro, Edwin Terry 1919-2007 (Terry Prothro)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born December 11, 1919, in Robeline, LA; died of heart disease, June 2, 2007, in Bethesda, MD. Psychologist, educator, foundation executive, and author. Prothro was a Louisiana native whose interest in cross-cultural psychology took him very far from home. He spent more than thirty years at the American University of Beirut as a professor, founder of the university's psychology department, director of the Center for Behavioral Research, dean of the faculty of arts and sciences, chair of graduate studies, and university provost. Prothro left the university in 1984, evacuated for his safety with other Americans during a Lebanese civil war. Back in the United States he continued his work with Lebanese students as the director of the Hariri Colleges Project to support Lebanese nationals studying in North America. He later became the vice president of the parent organization, the Hariri Foundation, where he remained until retirement in 1997. Prothro also taught at American institutions before and after his time in Lebanon and during sabbaticals, including appointments or visiting positions at Louisiana State University, the University of Tennessee, Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, the University of Michigan, and the University of California in Santa Barbara. He also spent time as a visiting fellow at the Middle East Center at Harvard University. Prothro's writings include a 1961 monograph, Child Rearing in the Lebanon, and a lengthier coauthored study, Changing Family Patterns in the Arab East. His research was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), among other granting bodies. For his contributions to the education of the Lebanese at home and abroad, Prothro was decorated by the Order of the Cedars of Lebanon in 1969.

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Washington Post, June 13, 2007, p. B7.