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Harold Grier McCurdy, Kenan professor emeritus of psychology, died Nov. 9
after a long illness. He was 90.
The Salisbury native, winner of the University's Tanner Award for excellence
in undergraduate teaching in 1968, made news in 1970 when his students
experimented with smiles.
Under McCurdy's direction, they systematically smiled at some strangers but
not at others, concluding as a result that women smile more than men, that the
most frequent situation involving smiles is a man smiling at a woman and that
people get more smiles if they smile themselves.
"There's reciprocity involved," McCurdy said at the time. "What happens out
there (in the world) is a reflection of what's inside here," he said, spreading
his left hand over his heart.
An expert on personality and the history of psychology, McCurdy taught at
Carolina for 23 years, from 1948 until he retired in 1971. He wrote several
books, including the poetry volumes A Straw Flute and The Chastening of
Narcissus. He also wrote The Personality of Shakespeare: A Venture in
Psychological Method and other books about personality and psychology.
McCurdy also taught at Milligan and Meredith colleges. He graduated magna cum
laude from Duke University in 1930 with highest honors in Greek and went on to
earn a doctorate in psychology there in 1938. He served two years on Carolina's
Faculty Council.
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