ROBERT S. GABLE

Here are a few details.  Not many.  In my view, personal history or “stories” are much less important than a focus on the possibilities of the present.  Or maybe it’s because, looking back, I realize how much more I could have accomplished "had I known then what I know now." (A common but useless lament.)

Ed.D. (counseling psychology), Harvard University, 1964; Ph.D. (experimental psychology), Brandeis University, 1964; J.D. (law), Jackson State University, 1976.

I spent a year (1957-1958) studying at the University of Natal and traveling in South Africa.  One of the best and most rewarding years of my life.

I taught for 30 years at Claremont Graduate University.  I have no idea why I was so fortunate to land at such a good place.  My courses in psychology were primarily behaviorally oriented (following what I still think is the very relevant and empirically verifiable paradigm of operant conditioning originated by B.F. Skinner).  I now have an appointment as Professor of Psychology (Emeritus).   

In 1998 I moved to Berkeley, CA, primarily at the urging of my son who lives in San Francisco and who so much enriched my life.

References to some of my papers, research grants, and a couple books are embedded in pages of this site where they seem substantively relevant.

Miscellaneous items follow.  Peruse at your own risk.

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Here is a sample piece of functional sculpture ("Telephone Totem") that I created back before LEDs were widely used in electronic devices.  Mechanical relays would activate "nixie tubes" (cold cathodes and wire mesh inside a glass tube filled with neon) that lighted in order to indicate the telephone number just dialed.  The "sculpture" worked on a normal telephone line.

My twin brother created a number of different pieces of functional sculpture or art works, one of which sold through the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog.  Their current catalog is at http://www.hammacher.com. 

At present, I am cooking-up a different piece of so-called sculpture.  My assistant, Evan, and I are running into many technical problems, but we are enjoying the potential joke of the piece... if it ever functions.  Here's Evan at the beginning of the project trying to do the impossible.

If it doesn't work, I am preparing myself for the sad impact on my neighbors _▼

                            _{Illustration from long-defunct fundamentalist Christian magazine, The Plain Truth, (Pasadena, CA), Feb/Mr.,1955, Vol. XX, No.2, p. 3.}

                                                                                                     Photos of Robert Gable

                                                  Before editing with Photoshop                                                                 After editing with Photoshop .                                                                                                         

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