Obituary: Dr. Paul Richard Jeanneret

On January 31, Dr. Paul Richard “Dick” Jeanneret died peacefully at his home in The Plains, VA, after a long illness.

Dr. Jeanneret was born to Lou and Alice Jeanneret on Nov 30, 1940, in Baltimore, MD, and attended Friends School, University of Virginia, University of Florida (master’s degree), and Purdue University (PhD).

Dick served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy and upon separation from the service received his doctorate from Purdue University in 1969. Dick joined the consulting firm of Lifson, Wilson, Ferguson, and Winick in Houston, Texas, thus starting a 40+-year career as an industrial-organizational psychologist. In 1981 Dick formed the firm of Jeanneret & Associates, building a successful consulting practice based in Houston but serving clients across the country and internationally. Joining with long-time friends and colleagues, the firm merged with Valtera Corporation in 2006; Dick retired from his position as president of Valtera in 2011.

Dr. Jeanneret was a Fellow of SIOP, and during his career he was an active participant and leader in his profession, publishing widely in professional journals and books, serving on and chairing committees, and presenting at numerous conferences. He gained international recognition as an expert in the science of job analysis beginning with his dissertation and continuing with his work on the O*Net, the current national job-analysis paradigm; he was part of the team that won the 2002 M. Scott Myers Award for Applied Research in the Workplace. Dr. Jeanneret was also widely respected for his seminal work in the application of individual assessment in applied settings. In 1990 he received the SIOP Distinguished Professional Contributions Award, a lifetime achievement recognition of his important and enduring influence on the practice of I-O psychology. Dick supported the profession in many ways including his gifts to the SIOP Foundation. He established the Jeanneret Award for Excellence in the Study of Individual or Group Assessment and funded the inaugural Praxis grant that led to a symposium of the assessment of leaders and a subsequent grant to fund research on global assessment and development. With his high intellectual standards and unshakeable ethics, he enjoyed the respect and admiration of his professional colleagues, employees, and friends.

Dick and his wife Sandy were generous supporters of Houston Methodist Hospital. They established the Surgical Training Advancement Research Fund (STAR Fund) and the P. Richard and Sandra Jeanneret Fund in Improving Outcomes After Hospitalization for Geriatric Patients With Neurodegenerative Disorders, and they were Centennial Lifetime Members of The Society for Leading Medicine at Houston Methodist Hospital.

Dr. Jeanneret is predeceased by his parents and stepdaughter Susan Lynn Moring. He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Sandra Lynn Jeanneret; three sons, David, Daniel, Brandon; and stepson Colonel (ret.) John Love Moring III.