Robert Bechtel, University of Arizona
Posted on 02/13/2005 10:12:28 PM PST by ambrose
Man who killed classmate at Swarthmore wants to attend reunion
SWARTHMORE, Pa. A man who shot a sleeping student to death during a rampage in a Swarthmore College dormitory in 1955 says he plans to attend his 50-year class reunion in June.
Robert Bechtel was acquitted by reason of insanity for the slaying.He spent five years in a psychiatric hospital, but has been free for decades and went on to become a professor at the University of Arizona in Tuscon.Now Bechtel says he wants to visit with his former classmates and explain that he was driven to kill because he felt bullied.His plans have upset college officials and some members of the class.Swarthmore officials say Bechtel has offered a misleading portrayal of the events surrounding the killing.Some alumni have called the professor's actions at the time evil.
This reads like a movie in the making! Quick, cast Tara Reid and Dennis Hopper to play the lead roles.
I knew it. The insane are teaching our kids.
What do the call it now, good?
You couldn't make this stuff up if you tried....
Our Universities are indeed inhabited by lunatics....
Semper Fi
His problem is that he murdered the wrong victim. If he'd murdered a policeman, like Mumia did, Swarthmore would be inviting him to deliver the keynote at the next commencement. If he'd murdered millions of Chinese, like Mao did, Swarthmore would be offering courses on how great a guy he is.
His problem is that he murdered the wrong victim. If he'd murdered a policeman, like Mumia did, Swarthmore would be inviting him to deliver the keynote at the next commencement. If he'd murdered millions of Chinese, like Mao did, Swarthmore would be offering courses on how great a guy he is.
More details. Note: link to AZ Republic is dead. Found this via GOOGLE cache.
Bullying victim boosts bill
UA professor wants to stop harassment
Robbie Sherwood
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 20, 2005 12:00 AM
University of Arizona psychology Professor Robert Bechtel was bullied and taunted in school from age 4 until he became a student at Pennsylvania's Swarthmore College in 1955.
Then one day, he snapped. Bechtel brought a gun into his dormitory and shot one of his tormentors to death.
Bechtel, who initially disclosed his violent past to his superiors and students in November, implored a legislative panel on Wednesday to take a crucial first step to outlawing bullying in Arizona schools.
"I'm telling you from a personal experience what bullying can do," Bechtel told members of the House Education Committee. "If my experience can be used to prevent this from happening again, then that's my goal."
The committee approved House Bill 2368 by a vote of 7-2, setting it up for a possible floor debate next week. A similar bill stalled in House and Senate committees last year despite emotional testimony from parents of bullied children.
Bechtel approached the bill's sponsor, Rep. David Bradley, after hearing him speak about last year's unsuccessful effort to outlaw bullying. Bradley said Bechtel is living proof of the damage, depression and acts of retaliatory violence that can occur when bullying and harassment are tolerated in schools.
After the shooting, Bechtel was declared insane and institutionalized.
He was declared fit for release after about five years and retried for murder in 1960. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity and continued his education.
The bill was hung up last year because Arizona schools already have state-mandated anti-hazing policies and federally mandated anti-harassment policies. And when bullying gets physical, children can be charged with assault.
But Bradley, D-Tucson, said Arizona needs specific anti-bullying policies to make sure school employees treat the problem seriously. Arizona is one of 33 states that do not have specific anti-bullying policies, according to a nationwide anti-bullying support group.
Bradley, who runs foster-care and group homes, said nearly all the kids who come into his care have either been perpetrators or victims of violence.
"Unless we force more public awareness, both the victims and the perpetrators show up later in life in our prisons, juvenile-justice system or with our mental-health services," Bradley said.
Bradley is not predicting victory for his bill but said it's at least likely to get a floor debate, which neither chamber did last year.
Publication:
http://www.sagepub.co.uk/book.aspx?pid=100331
Environment and Behavior
An Introduction
Authored by:
Robert B Bechtel University of Arizona, Tucson, USA
Description:
Unlike many books on the subject, which treat environmental psychology as a branch of psychology only, this comprehensive introduction takes a cross-disciplinary stance. Chapters cover such topics as: environmental engineering; biology; geography; architecture; evolutionary biology; sociology; clinical psychology and gerontology.
The author, taking a unified view of human-environment problems, includes many aspects of environmental studies and emphasizes the innovative thinking required to deal with environmental problems.
Dang quotas...
Now let me see:
1. Kill someone.
2. Be found not guilty by reason of insanity.
3. Be committed for five years. [About the same incarceration as manslaught in many jurisdictions.]
4. Continue you educations.
5. Become a psychology prof?
At first blush one might think physchology prof is the one profession that would be off limits to someone with this background. But then again, if psychology departments only include the always sane in their lives, maybe they are missing a perspective?
Dual faculty affiliations on the faculty,
listing of credentialing institutions and degrees:
Bechtel, Robert B - Professor, Psychology; Professor, Renewable Natural Resources; BA, 1962, Susquehanna University; MA, 1964, PHD, 1967, University of Kansas at Lawrence
Bechtel, Robert B.
Professor
Tel: 621-7430 MM
Office: 517
Building: Psychology
Email: bechtel@u.arizona.edu
Personal Homepage: NoneProgram: Environmental
Year of affiliation: 1976
Year of doctor degree: 1967
School: University of Kansas
The instructor teaches the following courses:
Environmental Psychology(PSYC 374)
Field Methods in Environmental Psychology(PSYC 474)
Field Methods in Environmental Psychology(PSYC 574)
Environmental Psychology(PSYC 374)
Field Methods in Environmental Psychology(PSYC 474)
Field Methods in Environmental Psychology(PSYC 574)
My profession is Environmental Psychology, which means I study attitudes, beliefs and behaviors as they relate to the enviornment as well as environmental influences on the entire range of human behavior. I work with architects, engineers, landscape architects, government agencies and private corporations. My environmental speicialties include extreme climates, housing and small communities. This includes work with NASA and Biosphere II. I just finished writing a textbook in Environmental Psychology and am starting a new book titled: "The Power of Negativity, The Force That Controls Our Lives." I am also editor of a journal called "Environment & Behavior." I have an interest in and work with conflicts in churches
He was "acquitted by reason of insanity for the slaying", yet "he wants to visit with his former classmates and explain that he was driven to kill because he felt bullied."
He knows why he did it, so he wasn't insane at all. He was bitter and angry and finally revengeful.
Not insane.
Given what we know of his life experience, this seems like a pretty good fit. Not sure what is unbelievable about someone who has killed another person going on to do something useful with their lives. Happens all the time.
Robert Bechtel, University of Arizona
Perhaps he could have given us the other side of the story.
WOW< talk about a career criminal. now the real criminals can have a second career at a UNiv.
IIRC from an earlier article the person who was murdered was not from the same class as Bechtel. He was younger. Bechtel was a proctor in his dorm.
University of Arizona psychology Professor Robert Bechtel was bullied and taunted in school from age 4 until he became a student at Pennsylvania's Swarthmore College in 1955.
None of the articles have said what it was about Bechtel that made him the subject of harassment.
PHD, 1967, University of Kansas at Lawrence
Wonderful. My tax dollars are paying for the "education" of psychotic murderers.
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