[IPAC-List] William W. Ruch (1935-2014)

Tue Sep 2 10:48:26 EDT 2014

*William W. Ruch (1935-2014)*

I am sorry to report the passing of I/O psychologist William (Bill) W. 
Ruch on August 4, 2014, at age 
79.http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/latimes/obituary.aspx?n=william-whitfield-ruch&pid=172008937 

Bill was born to be an I/O.His father was Floyd Ruch (1903-1982), who 
earned his Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University in 1930 and 
wrote the best-selling introductory psychology textbook, /Psychology and 
Life/, published in 13 editions, 1937-1992.Floyd taught at the 
University of Southern California for 31 years and chaired USC's 
business and industrial psychology program from 1942 until 1968.He was 
President of APA Division 14 (I/O psychology) in 1948-49.In 1952, he 
founded Psychological Services Incorporated (PSI), an I/O consulting 
company, and served as its President until his death in 1982.Mary 
Tenopyr (/TIP/, Feb 1983) described Floyd as "kind," "never stuffy," a 
"quick wit," and "one Helluva guy" who "lived and breathed industrial 
psychology."

Under his father's guidance, Bill earned a bachelor's degree in 
psychology at USC and then completed all courses for a doctorate in 
industrial psychology at USC.At that point, he and his father decided it 
was more important for him to work full-time at PSI than to complete his 
Ph.D. dissertation.Thus, Bill moved on from USC to operate the 
family-owned PSI for his entire professional career, as Vice President 
from about 1960 to 1982, as President from 1982-2002, and as 
Chairman/CEO from 2002 until about 2008 when Bill retired and sold PSI 
to a private equity firm.

Bill Ruch was a full-time scientist-practitioner who was admired and 
respected by other full-time scientist-practitioners.He worked as a test 
developer, test publisher, testing service provider, I/O consultant, and 
expert witness.Bill assembled a strong team of I/O professionals at PSI 
and achieved great success through innovation and adaptation to the 
changing marketplace.He became an expert in EEO compliance and was a 
pioneer in the analysis of differential validity and differential 
prediction.Bill also testified as an expert witness in over 80 
employment discrimination cases, teaming with employment attorney Keith 
Pyburn, New Orleans, LA, (for the defense).

In recognition for his outstanding work in the area of employment 
testing, Bill was elected President of the /Personnel Testing Council of 
Southern California/ (1966) and later served as a member of various 
testing advisory committees, including those for the Equal Employment 
Advisory Council, National Research Council, and Society for Industrial 
and Organizational Psychology.

Bill was a charismatic leader whose engaging manner, sense of humor, 
kindness, and generosity made it fun to be with him at work or play. 
Thus, many I/Os will remember him for the many workshops he presented at 
APA/SIOP conferences (six in total from 1976-2001), teaming most often 
with attorney Keith Pyburn for their famous "EEO/Legal Update" workshop. 
Bill will also be remembered for establishing the /Stephen E. Bemis 
Memorial Award/ to recognize I/O professionals who reflected Steve's 
open and caring attitude, as well as commitment to the principles of 
merit and fairness.Steve Bemis was the Director of PSI's Washington, DC, 
office at the time of his fatal auto accident in 1985.

*Selected Bibliography*

Ruch, F.L., & Ruch, W.W.(1960).Predicting success in draftsman training 
with short time limit aptitude tests./Educational and Psychological 
Measurement, 20/, 827-833.

Ruch, F.L., & Ruch, W.W.(1967).The K factor as a (validity) suppressor 
variable in predicting success in selling./Journal of Applied 
Psychology, 51/, 201-204.

Ruch, W.W.(1971).The impact on employment procedures of the Supreme 
Court decision in the /Duke Power /case./Personnel Journal, 50/, 777-783.

Ruch, W.W.(1972a).A re-analysis of published differential validity 
studies.In symposium, /Differential validation under EEOC and OFCC 
testing and selection regulations, /presented at the annual meeting of 
the American Psychological Association, Honolulu, HI. ERIC documents, 
www.eric.ed.gov <http://www.eric.ed.gov>

Ruch, W.W.(1972b).Statistical, legal, and moral problems following the 
EEOC guidelines.Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Western 
Psychological Association, Portland, OR.ERIC documents, www.eric.ed.gov 
<http://www.eric.ed.gov>

Ruch, W.W.(1976).Differential validation of physical tests for male and 
female patrol officers.In M. Tenopyr (Chair), /Physical ability tests: 
Development, validity, and equal employment opportunity/.Symposium 
presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological 
Association, Washington, DC.

Ruch, W.W.(1977).The current state of affairs with regard to 
psychological and legal enforcement aspects of Title VII and the 
Guidelines.Small group discussion presented at the annual meeting of the 
Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, San Francisco, CA.

Ruch, W.W., McKillip, R.H., & Dye, D.A.(1985)./Technical manual for the 
PSI basic skills tests for business, industry, and government/.Glendale, 
CA: Psychological Services Inc.

Ruch, W.W.(1994)./Employee Aptitude Survey: Technical manual/.Glendale, 
CA: Psychological Services Inc.

Ruch, W.W.(2001).Panel member.In F.P. Morgeson (Chair), /Developing 
human resource systems in legally contentious environments./Panel 
discussion presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Industrial 
and Organizational Psychology, San Diego, CA.

Ruch, W.W.(2006).Panel member.In J.A. Weiner (Chair), /Validity 
generalization at work: Is it legal to be scientific?/Panel discussion 
presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Industrial and 
Organizational Psychology, Dallas, TX.

Weiner, J.A., & Ruch, W.W.(2006).Effects of cheating in unproctored 
Internet-based testing: A Monte Carlo investigation.In S.T. Hunt 
(Chair), /Empirical investigations of unproctored personality measures 
used for employee selection/.Practice forum presented at the annual 
meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 
Dallas, TX.

September 2, 2014

Lance Seberhagen, Ph.D.

Seberhagen & Associates

Vienna, VA

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