right|thumb|paul b. popenoe in 1915. paul popenoe (october 16, 1888 â june 19, 1979) was an american founding practitioner of marriage counseling. in his early years, he worked as an agricultural explorer and as a scholar of heredity, where he played a role in the eugenics movement of the early twentieth century. ==biography== born paul bowman popenoe in topeka, kansas in 1888, he was the son of marion bowman popenoe and frederick oliver popenoe, a pioneer of the avocado industry. (popenoe dropped his middle name early in life.) he moved to california as a teen. after attending occidental college for two years and stanford university for his junior year (majoring in english with coursework in biology), popenoe left school to care for his father and worked for several years as a newspaper editor. he then worked briefly as an agricultural explorer collecting date specimens in western asia and northern africa for his father's nursery in california, along with his younger brother wilson popenoe, a horticulturist. these travels received considerable support and interest from the u.s. department of agriculture. paul popenoe published his first book date growing in the old world and the new in 1913. in the mid-1910s popenoe became interested in human breeding, editing the journal of heredity from 1913 until 1917, with a special attention to eugenics and social hygiene. by 1918, popenoe had become well-established enough to co-author (with roswell hill johnson) a popular college textbook on eugenics (applied eugenics). during world war i popenoe was inducted into the officer corps of the united states army. under the war department commission on training camp activities, he was charged with rooting out liquor and prostitution in an effort to reduce the high incidence of venereal disease amongst u.s. troops.david popenoe, war over the family, transaction publishers, 2005. isbn 0-7658-0259-7. chapter 14: remembering my father: an intellectual portrait of "the man who saved marriages". paul popenoe married betty stankowitch in new york on 23 august 1920. they remained married until her death on 26 june 1978. in the mid-1920s, popenoe began working with e.s. gosney, a wealthy california financier, and the human betterment foundation to promote eugenic policies in the state of california. in 1909, california had enacted its first compulsory sterilization law which allowed for sterilization of the mentally ill and mentally retarded in its state [[psychiatric hos
1888_births 1979_deaths American_eugenicists Relationship_counseling