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May 9, 1996

John C. Flanagan

John C. Flanagan, 90, a former Pitt faculty member and developer of the aptitude tests used to select American recruits for pilot training during World War II, died April 15, 1996, at his home in Menlo Park, Calif.

Flanagan joined the Army Air Corps in 1941 and devised tests to help identify men who had the ability to become combat pilots as part of the Aviation Psychology Program.

After the war, Flanagan became a faculty member in Pitt's psychology department. While at Pitt, he also started a research group in his Shadyside home that grew into the non-profit American Institutes for Research.

Robert Glaser, a faculty member in Pitt's Learning Research and Development Center, recalled that Flanagan used to hire students to work for his institute, which he moved from his home to the Amberson Apartments in Shadyside.

"Eventually, his outfit built the building in which the School of Library and Information Science is now in," says "That was originally an American Institutes for Research building." Flanagan left Pitt to manage his institutes, which grew to have offices in Washington, D. C., Palo Alto, Calif. and Lexington, Mass. He retired from research in 1982.


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