Dean Keith Simonton
Hi, I'm Dean. No, Dean is not my job title, but my first name. I
know it causes lots of confusion, especially at the university where I
work. It doesn't help matters that I spell out my middle name. You see,
my father's given name was Dean and my stepfather's was 
Keith
(by clairvoyant coincidence), and so I've retained both. Alas! I've actually
had people introduce me at conferences and conventions as Keith Simonton,
wanting to be informal and deciding (incorrectly) that they might best
"drop the title." I also get phone calls from people wishing to speak to
the "Dean of Psychology." It's such a nice title, however incorrect (and
sans any salary increment), that I decided to have it placed next to my
office door! Anyhow, I consider "Dean Keith" taken together to constitute
my first (given) name, and "Dean" to represent my "nickname." Sorry: Deanie
or Dino not allowed! Some students have opted to call me "Dr. Dean" - which
I actually think somewhat cool!
Now three points about my surname.
First, the name apparently originated when King Robert the Bruce (1306-1329) conferred the town of Symington ("Symons Town") upon a certain Thomas as a reward for the latter's service in the Scottish Wars of Independence (depicted so graphically in Mel Gibson's Braveheart). Thus assuming the name Thomas of Symington, he became the family's progenitor. The village still exists in Lanarkshire, Scotland, and in the summer of 2006 it was the location of a extended-family reunion celebrating the 700th anniversary of the surname's beginnings. According to the 1891 Scotland Census records, 57% of Lanarkshire families had the Symington surname - and another 29% were named Simington! Virile genes! By the way, the family coat of arms has the following symbolism: red field = the color of Valor; two yellow stars = symbols of Honor and Constancy; double-handed sword = Strength, Might and Justice. Nothing about Genius, Creativity, or Leadership! Wrong ancestor?
Second, since the name's origination it has acquired many different spellings, including my own. My version of the name is pronounced with a long i in the first syllable (as in "sigh") and with no "ing" in the second syllable (i.e., rhyming with "fun"). I have no idea how the middle syllable came to be pronounced differently from the original surname. However, it does represent a reversion to Symons Town.
Third, the Simonton Simonton is by no means a common name anywhere. According to the Census Bureau, its frequency is only around 0.001%, making it the 8,347th "most popular" surname in the United States. Not surprisingly, the Encyclopedia of American Family Names does not even list it! Some Simontons have devoted considerable effort to teasing out the lineage, and it seems that many if not all of those who carry that last name were descended from the same immigrant who arrived in the English colonies sometime in the mid-18th century. Hence, presumably the person after whom Simonton Street is named (in Key West, Florida) can count as a distant relative, along with the oncologist Carl Simonton, the feminist Ann Simonton, the founder of Simonton Windows, and the mid-19th century immigrant for whom Simonton, Texas, named. But that's about as far as my knowledge goes. My paternal grandfather, Prescott "Max" Simonton, abandoned his wife when my father was very young, creating a serious break in the passing down of family traditions - whatever they might have been. I never met Max, and my dad only did so once in his entire lifetime.
Now some early biography: I was born in Glendale, CA, a city near downtown
Los Angeles and Hollywood, but grew up in the San Fernando Valley. Despite
growing up in a working-class neighborhood - my dad was a high school dropout
who began on the assemblyline in the aerospace industry and retired as
a long-haul trucker - I very early became ambitious, an ambition fueled
by my omnivorous reading. As an impressionable youth I encountered the
maxim of an obscure 19th-century American (Joel Hawes) that became something
of a personal motto: "Aim at the sun, and you may not reach it; but your
arrow will fly far higher than if aimed at an object on a level with yourself."
(Fortunately, I had not yet heard of the "Peter Principle" that hints that
sometimes you can aim too high: the arrow can then soon puncture the top
of your head!)
The Hawes saying became fully actualized when I 
attended
John
H. Francis Polytechnic High School, the second oldest school in
LA (founded in 1897, and moved to its present site in 1957). Besides getting
excellent grades - I was the class salutatorian - I was very active in
extracurricular actitivies, including student government ("secretary of
health and safety," the nasty speed bumps I had installed in the student
parking lot were still there over 40 years later), community service
(mostly in association with the Red Cross), rock and jazz groups (as rhythm
guitarist), and football ("half back" and some defensive back), but becoming
half-time announcer for the marching band and drill team after a knee injury
put me on a much more fun and less smelly bus. Also about this time I used
my minimum-wage earnings as busboy to purchase the first edition of the
54-volume
Great
Books of the Western World. I immediately began the 10-year reading
program presented in Volume 1, which I finally completed on August 29th,
2010 - 45 years later! I guess I'm a very slow reader.
My favorite activity in high school was probably drama, where I had supporting roles in two productions ("Heaven Can Wait" and "Lost Horizon") and a lead role in another ("Berkeley Square"). Poly's drama director had delivered a few lines as "Lt. Cunningham" in the 1952 What Price Glory, staring James Cagney and directed by John Ford. (Again, coincidentally, my stepfather had conducted the orchestra for Charlie Chaplin's Limelight that was released the exact same year!)
More challenging was my role as captain of the school "knowledge bowl team" - which I eventually led to victory in a televised competition ("Scholar Quiz"). The prize? A seven-language dictionary (including Yiddish!), a slide rule (what's that?), and a quart of orange juice! All but the last I still have in my possession (the slide rule as an archeological artifact).
After graduation I got my bachelors in psychology at Occidental
College, which had fewer than half as many students as my high school!
Coincidentally once more, my stepfather also graduated from both "Poly"
and "Oxy"! In any case, while at Oxy I performed in two dramatic
productions ("The Maids" and "Chronicles from Hell," the second of which
was broadcast on KCET in LA), and served as coordinator for Red Cross activities
on the 
campus
(big brother programs, etc.).
Also when in college I decided to "see the world" (family vacations having been largely confined to water skiing and camping trips in southern and central California).
In my first summer I hitchhiked famed Route 66 from LA to Chicago
to visit the Serbian side of my family and then thumbed across I-80 to
San Francisco (through Haight-Ashbury), and from there down 101 to LA.
The 5,000 mile solo venture included many unplanned adventures, from being
nearly swept away by a flash flood in the Mohave desert (all hail to heavy
backpacks) to spending a night sleeping in the Cook County jail (which
has housed such infamous criminals as Al Capone). Between Iowa and
Utah, I benefited from the tremendous goodwill of those who practice the
Mormon faith.
The next summer my girlfriend and I rode our pack-laden bicycles
from England (London to Salisbury and Stonehenge, then Brighton), through
France (via Dieppe, Rouen, Paris, Chartres, Orléans, Blois, Toulouse,
and Carcassonne), a sidetrip to Spain (Barcelona, under the Franco regime!),
back briefly to France (Nîmes and the Riviera, including Monaco and
Nice), then to Italy (Firenze, Roma, San Marino, Ravenna, Venezia, Milano,
and Como), Switzerland (Grindelwald and Luzerne), Germany (Heidelberg,
the Rhein to Bonn and Köln), and finally to the Netherlands (Amsterdam).
OK, OK, I confess, we put our bikes on a ferry, boat, or train from time
to time!
From
Oxy I went straight to Harvard University
in Cambridge, MA. There I devoted a considerable amount of time to exploring
an environment very different from Southern California - visiting museums,
attending concerts, sculling up and down the Charles River, bicycling hither
and yon, hiking and backpacking in the Green and White Mountains, and touring
the East Coast from Maine to Virginia. Despite the many pleasant distractions,
I earned my PhD in Social Psychology four
years later, submitting my dissertation while loading up a U-Haul truck
to move to my first job at the University
of Arkansas (joining the faculty the same year as Hillary Rodham
who was not yet Clinton). The remainder of the story is part of my academic
vita.
Here some URLs which will give you a better idea about my interests
and values.
Music? What could be better
than something by Ludwig van Beethoven?
My favorite radio station is KXPR,
which plays classical music and the live broadcasts of the Metropolitan
Opera.
Who do I admire? Well,
what about Albert Einstein
for a starter? Or Charles Darwin?
Or Benjamin Franklin
or Leonardo da Vinci?
When I applied to Oxy it was Franklin who was the subject of the required
essay "Who do I most admire and why?" So, in a sense, he got me into college!
How about a non-English
tongue? Try some Spanish!
One of the world's great languages! Although I took Spanish in high school,
and turned to German in college, I became a subscriber/student/aficionado
of the audiomagazine Puerta
del Sol from 1994 until its publication sadly ceased in 2010. However,
if I could just snap my fingers and become at once a fluent reader and
speaker, I would select Mandarin. With English, Spanish, and Mandarin,
I could converse with over 2 billion human beings!
What organizations do
I support? Dozens ... but among the most important are the Greenpeace,
Sea
Shepherd,
Nature Conservancy,
Wilderness
Society,
Defenders of Wildlife,
National
Wildlife Federation, National
Audubon Society, National Parks
and Conservation Association, Natural
Resources Defense Council, Sierra
Club, California Wilderness
Coalition, California State
Parks Foundation, Californians
Against Waste Foundation, Marine
Mammal Center, and Performing
Animals Welfare Society.
Here's something interesting: On the side I do "container junk art." It's made of found objects placed within or around old containers. I say it's "interesting" because when I show my art to people for the first time, that's what they say, "Interesting!" It's nice that everyone's so polite! Little children are somewhat less so, one even braking down in tears at the horrible sight! Some photos available right here. For some of my favorite quotations, please go here. The quotes may or may not contradict the photos.
Oh, yes, I almost forgot: If you want to cozy up to the fireplace to read a good book, try my Origins of Genius: Darwinian Perspectives on Creativity, which was published by Oxford University Press in 1999. It received the William James Book Award from the American Psychological Association. In addition, it was chosen as a selection by the Quality Paperback Book Club (part of the Book-of-the-Month Club) and made the "Recommended Reading" list in Phi Beta Kappa's Key Reporter. McLaughlin, of the TV program The McLaughlin Group, had this to say "All right, sit back. I'll give you a little erudition here. Most Original Thinker of 2000, Dean Keith Simonton, author of Origins of Genius, his ground-breaking treatise that links the Darwinian concept of evolution to the social purpose behind genius; a remarkable book in which I've personally found great help." In 2002 the book was translated into Portuguese for a Brazilian edition.
But the author's pen moves on. My Genius 101 became available in 2009. It's already received excellent blurbs, and was even the subject of a recent Newsweek article. Will this replace Origins of Genius as my most popular book? Perhaps so: It's already being translated into Polish and Korean, with current negotiations for translations into German and Mandarin. Or will it be my Great Flicks, published by Oxford just two years later? More to come ...
While I'm at it, I might as well mention that my research and writing has
acquired considerable media attention over the years.
I have appeared on TV programs covering genius, creativity, leadership, and talent for the Discovery Channel, the Arts and Entertainment Channel ("The Mystery of Genius"), the Public Broadcasting System ("The Creative Spirit"), CNN ("Anderson Cooper Show"), VPRO in the Netherlands ("Bonobo-bo" pictured at left), the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (on "Lateline"), the other ABC (on "Good Morning America"), the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (David Susuki’s "The Nature of Things," Canada's longest running documentary series), and Sacramento's CBS local affiliate KOVR (Channel 13 "10 O'clock News").
I have also done numerous radio interviews for National Public Radio ("Performance Today," "The Infinite Mind," "Whad'Ya Know?," etc.), eYada.com's "Psychology Today ... Today," CBC ("Definitely Not The Opera" and "Ideas" programs), Sirius Satellite Radio ("The Good Life Show"), and various NPR, CBS, BBC, BBC Scotland, ABC, and local radio stations in various English-speaking nations from Australia to Scotland.
Finally, my work has been featured in such print media as Time, Newsweek, US News & World Report, The New Yorker, Psychology Today, Psychologies, Fortune, Business Week, USA Weekend, Parade Magazine, The Economist, Discover Magazine, Elle, Men's Health, The Chronicle of Higher Education, USA Today, the Associated Press, the Sunday Times, New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal, Philadelphia Inquirer, Montreal Gazette, Toronto Star, Ottawa Citizen, Winsor Star, Winnipeg Free Press, Calgary Herald, Vancouver Sun, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Sacramento Bee, Vallejo Times-Herald, and the Harvard Crimsom, internet media like CNN.com, ABCNews.com, LATimes.com, Miller-McCune.com, NPR.org, TheWrap.com, and PopPhoto.com, and such non-English vehicles as Der Welt, Nürnberger Nachrichten, Pravda, Super Interessante, La Vanguardia, Valor Econômico, La Tercera, and Desdeelexilio.com.
YouTube Videos: Genius Definitions | Albert Einstein
World Science Festival: What is Genius? | Genius' Dark Cousin
Last revised: April 6, 2012