Jesse R. Pitts: Difference between revisions
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[[Image:JRPwww.jpg|right|Jesse R. Pitts]] |
[[Image:JRPwww.jpg|right|Jesse R. Pitts]] |
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'''Jesse Richard Pitts''' ([[1921]] - [[2003]]), author and educator, was born in [[East Palestine, Ohio]] on June 13, 1921. The son of a veterinarian and a French warbride, he was raised in Ohio and [[France]]. He returned to the United States to attend [[Harvard University]] and graduated [[magna cum laude]] in 1941. |
'''Jesse Richard Pitts''' ([[1921]] - [[2003]]), author and educator, was born in [[East Palestine, Ohio]] on June 13, 1921. The son of a veterinarian from [[Marietta, Ohio]] and a French warbride, he was raised in Ohio and [[France]]. He returned to the United States to attend [[Harvard University]] and graduated [[magna cum laude]] in 1941. |
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He enlisted in the [[U. S. Army Air Corps]] in World War II. He was co-pilot of a [[B-17 Flying Fortress]] bomber stationed in England. He was awarded the [[Distinguished Flying Cross (United States)|Distinguished Flying Cross]] as well as the [[France|French]] [[Croix de Guerre]]. |
He enlisted in the [[U. S. Army Air Corps]] in World War II. He was co-pilot of a [[B-17 Flying Fortress]] bomber stationed in England. He was awarded the [[Distinguished Flying Cross (United States)|Distinguished Flying Cross]] as well as the [[France|French]] [[Croix de Guerre]]. |
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Revision as of 08:41, 21 July 2007
Jesse Richard Pitts (1921 - 2003), author and educator, was born in East Palestine, Ohio on June 13, 1921. The son of a veterinarian from Marietta, Ohio and a French warbride, he was raised in Ohio and France. He returned to the United States to attend Harvard University and graduated magna cum laude in 1941.
He enlisted in the U. S. Army Air Corps in World War II. He was co-pilot of a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber stationed in England. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross as well as the French Croix de Guerre.
After the war, he conducted business in North Africa for three years.
He married Monique Bonnier, the daughter of French Resistance hero Claude Bonnier, with whom he had four children.
He returned to Harvard in 1948 to pursue graduate studies and eventually received a Ph.D. in sociology.
Dr. Pitts was Associate Professor of Sociology at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan from 1959 to 1964; Professor at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan from 1964 to 1986; and Professor Emeritus at the University of Viginia in Charlottesville, Virgina from 1986 to 1991.
Dr. Pitts also taught sociology at Michigan State University in Lansing, Michigan and Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He also lectured in Paris.
Dr. Pitts created the Franco-American periodical The Tocqueville Review, serving as editor from 1978 to 1991.
Dr. Pitts devoted the last years of his life to writing his memoir of the war, "Return to Base", which he dedicated to the crew of his B-17G, the "Penny Ante". The book was published posthumously in the U. S. and Great Britain, and in a French translation in France, "Retour sur Kimbolton".
Dr. Pitts passed away in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 2, 2003.
Dr. Pitts did pioneering sociological work on marginality, deviance and conformity.
Quotes from the works of Dr. Pitts:
"Some occupational roles...create marginality in their incumbents by being on the fringes of professional status, yet unable to claim commonality with the traditional professions." [Pitts, 1961, p.710]
"Another level of marginality is exemplified by the adult immigrant...another source...is intermarriage between different nationality or ethnic groups and/or social classes...such a marriage reflects a certain alienation, on the part of each spouse, from his or her original milieu." [Pitts, 1961, p.710]
"Error and illness are two forms of deviance that apparently derive from failures to reach efficiency and/or effectiveness...illness is also a lack of control...over the body and the mind that renders the individual incapable of realizing his value commitments...Even 'completely physical' illness can be an escape from onerous duty." [Pitts 1961, p.702]
"Illness...is the essence of powerlessness...an expression of nature's power over man...in a society [like the USA] stressing the spirit's mastery over matter, illness is considered...a failure of the will...the ill person is more alienated from his society...[and must take] vigorous steps to get well." [Pitts, 1961, p.705]
Publications
- 1961: Theories of Society: Foundations of Modern Sociological Theory, Two Volumes in One, with Talcott Parsons (Editor), Edward Shils & Kaspar D. Naegele, New York: The Free Press
- 1963: In Search of France co-authored with Stanley Hoffmann; Cambridge, Harvard University Press
- 1964: Social Approaches to Mental Patient Care, with Morrie Schwartz S. and Charlotte Green Schwartz; co-authors: Mark G. Field, Elliot G. Mishler, Simon Olshansky, Jesse R. Pitts, Rhona Rapoport and Warren T. Vaughan, Jr.: New York and London, Columbia University Press
- 1972: Strike at Oakland University, Change (Feb. 1972), p.18.
- 1980: Talcott Parsons: the sociologist as the last Puritan, American Sociologist, 00, p.64.
- 1986: Celebrating Tocqueville's Democracy in America, 1835-1985, with Olivier Zunz [eds.]; Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia
- 2004: Return to Base: Memoirs of a B-17 Co-pilot, Kimbolton, England, 1943-1944 xix, 280 p., 17pp. of plates: ill., maps, Charlottesville, VA: Howell Press, 2004.