In 1965 Hugh Waskom resigned as head of the Department of Psychology. The Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Larry Chalmers, appointed Howard Baker Acting Chairman of the Department. He also appointed a search committee with Dan Kenshalo as its Chairman. In initial discussions between the departmental faculty and the search committee, a consensus emerged that the new chairman should be strongly oriented toward research. The position of chairman was widely advertised and letters were written and phone calls were made to many acquaintances of the departmental faculty soliciting nominations for the position. By late winter the committee had a slate of six or seven persons who appeared to be suitable candidates. After rank ordering by the faculty of the Department, the top three were invited to visit and become acquainted with the faculty and higher-level administrators. In the interim, Chalmers had accepted the offer to become Academic Vice President and, after a committee search and recommendation, he appointed Robert 0. Lawton Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. It was Dean Lawton to whom the recommendation was made that Joseph H. Grosslight be offered the Chair in Psychology.

When Joe Grosslight assumed the Chair of Psychology he arranged to have the Chair's office complex renovated. He also initiated other changes quite different from those to which the faculty had grown accustomed during the Waskom era. For a time he placed the teaching schedule with day and hour of classes on a portable blackboard located in the conference room of KRB. The faculty members were advised to come by, take a look and discuss any problems noted. Over a period of time the faculty was relieved of most of the chores associated with scheduling and registration. The Associate Chair and office staff began to handle most of these recurring activities.

From the day Joe Grosslight took over the Chair of the Department he had a plan by which to bring it to a high level of distinction. Simply put, it was to further reinforce those strengths of research, already at work, and to modernize the departmental activities by developing new and "hot" peaks of research. When he came, there were already substantial strengths in school psychology, clinical psychology and psychophysiology of the senses (Psychobiology). New peaks to be developed were in social and cognitive psychology. With that intention the full-time faculty went from approximately 25 to 45 by the end of 1970. A number of adjunct, temporary and part-time appointments, such as Dr. William Rushton, a world-renowned expert in visual psychophysics, and Bryan Robinson, M.D., a neurologist, were also recruited into the Department.

From the beginning of Joe's tenure he did not like to dicker about salary with a potential faculty member. In one of his first faculty meetings, scheduled to discuss candidates, Joe reported that one excellent candidate was a faculty member at another good university. The candidate wished to come to FSU but was asking for $500 more than he had been offered. One would gather, from his comment, that Joe was inclined to tell him to forget it. However, one of the members present pointed out that we should not lose a good prospect for a mere $500. Joe agreed to the majority opinion. This democratic style, as the faculty would find out later, was his wont. As a result, that prospective faculty member was hired. In the ensuing 22 years he has made substantial contributions to both the teaching and research activities of the Department.

Recruiting faculty was an "all hands evolution." Primary responsibility for selection of those to be recruited rested with those departmental faculty whose research interests resided in one of the "peaks." The interviewing, luncheons, dinners, and cocktail parties were, however the responsibility of all departmental faculty. The magnitude of the task was formidable. Twenty new faculty were added in a four-year span. At least three candidates were interviewed for each position. That is a minimum of 60 recruiting parties during this period (an average of about two per month during each of the four academic years). Almost doubling the faculty in such a short period of time could have been very disconcerting, confusing, and threatening especially to the faculty of longer tenure. It undoubtedly would have been, had it not been for Joe's anticipation of many of the problem areas, his insight in handling them and, especially, a liberal application of his sense of humor.

By the academic year of 1971, the earlier recruitment efforts were paying dividends and Joe decided a short change of duties was desirable for the academic year 1972-73. Accordingly, he took over the administrative duties of the FSU London Center. While in London he also taught classes.

One of Joe Grosslight's major professional interests was the teaching of psychology. He devised a graduate level course to teach students how to teach Introductory Psychology. He required students anticipating an academic appointment to register for this course. He also made arrangements with a number of small, largely down-state, institutions to hire his graduate students for one or two terms so they could get some real "hands-on" teaching experience. During this experience, Joe made regular visits to the intern sites to observe their classroom performance and confer with their supervisors.

On the home front, the number of students registered in the introductory courses was a problem. Rather than increasing everyone's teaching load, Joe opted for large classes to accommodate the overload. He and Dick Husband taught classes in Westcott Auditorium with over 500 students enrolled in each section. Obviously, the only method of instruction to such a large group was by straight lecture. Faculty who wished to employ other instructional approaches, with small sections, could count on Joe's cooperation.

As had been the pattern of earlier chairmen and department heads, Joe maintained an excellent working relationship with a number of faculty members in the College of Education. A number of the joint appointments lasted in excess of a decade.

Joe Grosslight presided over this Psychology Department for 20 years. The early years were the most explosive, in terms of growth. During his tenure there was not only growth in faculty members, in course offerings and in the number of graduate students seeking advanced degrees, but additionally there was a marked enhancement of the academic reputation of the departmental programs at the Regional and National levels.