Achilles, Paul Strong (1890 – 1976)

In the 1920s, Paul Strong Achilles became head of the Psychological Corporation, known today as PsychCorp, which developed and sold tests. The corporation was founded by Columbia University’s James Cattell, Edward Thorndyke, and Robert Woodworth in 1921, but Achilles made it profitable. From 1942 to 1964 he served as the managing trustee of the James McKeen Cattell Fund, which was established to support "scientific research and the dissemination of knowledge with the object of obtaining results beneficial to the development of the science of psychology and to the advancement of the useful application of psychology." Achilles was born in Tacoma, Washington, graduated from Yale in 1923. He lived in Hawaii for a few years and was active in Yale’s China program. He taught at Columbia and obtained his PhD there in 1926. His wife was Edith Achilles.