On June 30, 2008, Victor Anthony Battistich, died suddenly and unexpectedly at his home in Creve Coeur, Missouri. He was 55 years old. Vic, as he was called by all who knew him, was an Associate Professor in the Division of Educational Psychology, Research, and Evaluation in the College of Education, at the University of Missouri—St. Louis, and a member of the Executive Committee of the university’s Center for Character and Citizenship.
Vic was born in 1952 and grew up in Sacramento, California, receiving his B.A. degree in Psychology from California State University, Sacramento, in 1974. He received his Ph.D. in Personality and Social Psychology from Michigan State University in 1979, where he focused on person-environment interactions. Following graduate school, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Cleveland State University before returning to California in 1980, to become part of the core research team of the Child Development Project, at the Developmental Studies Center in Oakland, California. In 2003, he joined the faculty of the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Known as a program evaluator, particularly in the field of character education, it is difficult to find anything written about research in character education where he is not cited. He is best known for over two decades of program evaluation work on the Child Development Project (CDP) in the 1980s and 1990’s, and well into the current decade. However, he did not like being pigeon-holed as a program evaluator; a fair complaint as he was also a theorist, critic, and creative synthetic thinker. While his title at the Developmental Studies Center, Deputy Director of Research, clearly indicates that he was strongly involved in program evaluation, he was integral to all aspects of the CDP—establishing the research and theoretical bases for the program, and honing the practical components that formed the core of the program, as well as its ongoing formative and summative evaluation. It is this work that is so frequently cited for its theoretical, methodological, and evaluative value. Clear in his work is his fresh and critical eye toward research. He was happy to integrate qualitative and quantitative methods well before it became vogue. He was vocal about the need to not be a “knee jerk” researcher and adapt to the realities of the context, in his case particularly schools. He appreciated the conventions of research, but understood them to be just that…mere conventions.
Vic’s desire to do work that would help to make the world a better place, combined with his long term interest in the effects of context on behavior and development, led naturally to his life-long research focus on the effects of school and classroom environments on children’s social, ethical, and intellectual development. His entire career was dedicated to understanding how schools might create the kinds of environments that would nurture in children the competencies and values needed to become a force for good in the world. He is internationally recognized for his expertise in the areas of character education and prosocial development, and in research design and data analysis. Vic’s scientific work encompassed several related fields: character education, substance abuse prevention, school sociology, delinquency prevention, and moral development. He has authored or co-authored over 60 professional publications, including journal articles in education, child and adolescent development, pediatrics, psychology, prevention, and public health and chapters in the Handbook of Moral Behavior and Development, Handbook of Research on Teaching, Handbook of Moral Development, Handbook of Classroom Management, and Handbook of Research on Schools, Schooling, and Human Development.
Vic is survived by his widow, Martha Montgomery, two daughters, Sarah and Caitlin, and a brother, Martyn Battistich.
His family has requested that if people want to make a memorial donation in his honor, that it go to the Center for Character and Citizenship at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Send contributions to Beatrice Shivers, Center for Character and Citizenship, 402 Marillac Hall, College of Education, University of Missouri-St. Louis, One University Boulevard, St. Louis, MO 63121.