Ronnie Detrich, 1946-2023

Remembering a behavior analyst who provided superb clinical coaching

Charles Ronald Detrich, who was born 6 December 1946 in Snyder (TX) and who was known to most everyone as “Ronnie,” died 9 September 2023 in Logan, Utah. Ronnie spent most of his life working to improve the lives of children and youth who experienced a wide array of problems and disabilities. People who knew him celebrated his compassion and caring, his willingness to listen to others’ views, and his clear focus on bringing evidence to bear on the construction of environments where children could succeed.

Ronnie began his career studying at the University of North Texas (then known as North Texas State University) where he completed bachelors and masters degrees in psychology. After working in human services at family service organizations and residential facilities for nearly 10 years, Ronnie began advanced graduate work in psychology at West Virginia University. While completing a Ph.D. in 1986 with Trevor Stokes at WVU, Ronnie continued to work in child services and to supervise graduate students’ clinical work.

Soon after completing a post-doctoral internship, Ronnie began work with the Spectrum Center for Educational and Behavioral Services in the Bay Area of California. The Spectrum Center, which began as essentially a classroom for students with such substantial disabilities that they were excluded from regular public schools, grew substantially as a non-profit over the years under the leadership of Randy Keyworth, Jack States, and Ronnie. These people were dedicated to securing help for children. Spectrum Center has become a nationwide service provider. During his years at the Spectrum Center Ronnie focused on the practice of psychology and education, devoting his efforts to helping staff members provide exemplary services.

After a large organization took over Spectrum Center operations, Ronnie began work with the Wing Institute and his long-time partners, Jack and Randy. At the Wing Institute he devoted his efforts to promoting evidence-based practices and disseminating materials and resources in support of people implementing them (see, for example, the Research Library). The Wing Center convened regular meetings that focused on topics within the realm of implementation science and wrote publications promoting behaviorally sound methods (see, e. g., Treatment Integrity).

Upon retiring from the Wing Institute in 2018, Ronnie became a faculty member at Utah State University. He taught and conducted research about systems change at the local and state levels and continued his efforts to promote practices and procedures consistent with his behavior analytic roots. True to his academic instincts, he published papers and chapters in diverse outlets (these links point to a few of his articles: Evidence-based Practice: A Framework for Making Effective Decisions in Education and Treatment of Children, A Decade of Evidence-Based Education: Where Are We and Where Do We Need to Go? in the Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, and Increasing Treatment Fidelity by Matching Interventions to Contextual Variables within the Educational Setting in the School Psychology Review). He was also affiliated with widely respected organizations that acknowledged his contributions (see, for example, the posts at the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies and the Association for Behavior Analysis International).

Although he had a strong publication record, Ronnie’s real magic occurred when he was working directly with people providing services to children. People remarked that he was a master of listening, asking probing questions, and leading people to realize the benefits of alternative practices that just happened to be those he favored because of the evidence that they helped students perform better and have better outcomes.

Ronnie wasn’t all business, though. He liked to have fun. In addition to enjoying baseball, he was an avid tennis player. According to his wife, Cheryl, he was a fabulous dancer and they enjoyed many evenings dancing together, as shown in the accompanying photos (thanks, Cheryl!).

Ronnie and Cheryl. Photo courtesy of the Detrichs.

Cheryl and Ronnie. Photo courtesy of the Detrichs

Ronnie was remembered in an aggregation of brief pieces published in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis in December of 2023. Janet Twyman, Sarah Pinkelman, Shawn Kenyon, William L. Heward, Kennon A. Lattal, and Thomas S. Critchfield each contributed to the remembrance. Here’s how they began their remembrance:

Those of us who think in terms of legacies hope that, when our time comes to cease being a behavior analyst (when they pry that tattered copy of Science and Human Behavior from our cold, dead hands), we will be remembered for doing something well. The difficulty in memorializing our friend and colleague Ronnie Detrich… is that he was, in whatever he chose to work on, among the best we ever met.

Readers who are interested in learning more about Ronnie’s academic work can find a collection of notes and articles by him on ResearchGate and a profile at the Center for the School of the Future at Utah State University.

Reference

Twyman, J., Pinkelman, S., Kenyon, S., Heward, W. L., Lattal, K. A., & Critchfield, T. S. (2023). Ronnie Detrich (1946–2023): A versatile behavior analyst who demanded more of behavior analysis and education. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, https://doi.org/10.1002/jaba.1043