ABSTRACT
When I retired from my decanal duties in 1989, the editors of the student newsletter asked me to identify the experience out-side the classroom that had most influenced my career. I dashed off the following handwritten note:
My personal relationship with Paul Meehl. Meehl not only led me into clinical psychology, but was mentor and model to me throughout my graduate study. He was my advisor, so naturally he helped me plan my coursework, complete my dissertation, and meet all the other demands of the rigorous Minnesota PhD program, but he did far more than that. He always greeted me warmly. When I came in the door of his office, he would say “Donald Robert Peterson!” and I would say “Paul Everett Meehl!” and then our conversation would begin, a respectful discussion, often punctuated by laughter, between two people interested in the same topic. We were never close, equal friends. To this day, I feel that he is the professor and I am the student. But by prizing me, he helped me value myself. I have never written an article, chapter, or book without thinking, at some point, “What would Paul Meehl say about that?”
