ABSTRACT
EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL TRAINING Bijou’s parents-Leon Bijou (1874-1947) and Lea Babert Bijou (1883-1966)— were born in France but immigrated to the United States soon after the turn of the century, settling in Arlington, Maryland. Leon was a custom tailor and dry cleaner, Lea a homemaker. Born on November 12, 1908, Bijou was the youngest of four children, but eventually an only child, as his siblings died of natural causes. Raised by a loving and supportive mother, proud of her son, he returned her love fully. In 1918, the family moved to Brooklyn, New York, to be near relatives. In the process, Bijou missed a year of school, struggled with his grades, and took evening classes in preparation for college. He graduated from high school in 1928, interested in mechanics and athletics. Mechanics exempliŸed the scientiŸc values of prediction and control espoused by Francis Bacon (1561-1626) (Smith, 1992). They may have shaped Bijou’s search for a natural science of psychology, but not seamlessly.
