Raphael Mark Hanson helped form Cal State Long Beach’s psychology department and became the department chair and chair of the CSULB academic senate. A CSULB professor emeritus, he died of pneumonia on Feb. 11 at the age of 82.
“He was both a friend and mentor,” said Martin Fiebert, a current CSULB psychology professor who worked with Hanson. “He was very open, tolerant, thoughtful and good-humored.”
Fiebert said Hanson also helped start the faculty union.
“It is very important,” Fiebert said about the union. “You negotiate with the administration for salary and working conditions and advocate for student rights.”
Actively involved in university politics, Hanson was interested in fighting for civil liberty rights and academic freedom, Fiebert added.
Hanson moved to Cal State Long Beach in 1961 after earning his doctorate in statistics from the University of California, Berkeley.
Current psychology department chair Kenneth Green said Hanson officially retired in 1986, but stuck around, joining the faculty’s early retirement program and teaching part-time for a number of years.
He had a wide array of interests, including politics, musical concerts, tennis, classical music and Asian art — which he collected and donated to the CSULB library.
“He was an avid player of the Japanese game of Go, which is a bit like Chess,” Vice Provost David Dowell said. “He taught me to play Go and in my early years, I remember playing many games with him, often, late at night.”
Green said that Hanson had a taste for classical music — Anton Bruckner was one of his favorites.
“[He was] always ready to sit down and talk about things,” Green said. “Just universally interested.”
Hanson, who was at UC Berkeley during the McCarthy era, was adamantly opposed to loyalty oaths.
“Raphael Hanson was a man that his academic colleagues always could depend on for solid advice, both in terms of his science where he was an expert, and also everyday matters,” professor Robert Thayer said.
Hanson is survived by his sister Deborah Hanson Murphy, niece Judy Hanson Argyres and two nephews.
There will be a memorial on March 5. The location is yet to be determined.
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