Thomas Gordon, widely recognized as a pioneer in teaching communication skills and conflict resolution methods to parents, teachers, youth, organization managers and employees, Dr. Thomas Gordon was the founder of Gordon Training International.
A licensed clinical psychologist, Dr. Gordon received his B.A. from DePauw University, his M.A. from Ohio State University, and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, where he served on the faculty for five years. From 1942-1946 he served in the Army Air Force.
He was the author of nine books: Group-Centered Leadership, Parent Effectiveness Training (P.E.T.), Leader Effectiveness Training (L.E.T.), Teacher Effectiveness Training (T.E.T.), Parent Effectiveness Training in Action, Discipline That Works, Sales Effectiveness Training (co-authored with Carl Zaiss), Making The Patient Your Partner (co-authored with W. Sterling Edwards, M.D.) and Good Relationships; What Makes Them, What Breaks Them (co-authored with Noel Burch). His books have been published in 28 languages and over 6 million copies have been sold worldwide.
In addition, Dr. Gordon contributed over 50 published articles on organizational leadership, communications, counseling, discipline, parenting, conflict resolution and democratic decision-making.
The Parent Effectiveness Training (P.E.T.) course, which he introduced in 1962, is widely recognized as the first skill-based training program for parents. It spawned the widespread parent training movement in the U.S. and it has been taught to over a million parents in 43 countries around the world. In 1997, Dr. Gordon developed a video-based version of P.E.T. called Family Effectiveness Training (F.E.T.).
The Teacher Effectiveness Training (T.E.T.) course has been taught as an accredited course to hundreds of thousands of teachers in the U.S. and in a number of foreign countries. Recognizing the similarity in teacher/student relationships to parent/child relationships, Dr. Gordon adapted his communications model to aid teachers in class management and students in reaching their maximum potential.
The Leader Effectiveness Training (L.E.T.) program has been taught in hundreds of corporations in the U.S. and worldwide, including many Fortune 500 companies. Dr. Gordon is recognized as a pioneer in developing a model of democratic and collaborative leadership and identifying the effective communication and conflict resolution skills required to implement it.
Dr. Gordon was a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and a member of its Division of Peace Psychology. He was also a member of the National Peace Foundation, the Association of Humanistic Psychology, and a past President of the California Psychological Association. He was the first recipient of the Career Achievement Award from the National Parenting Instructors Association. He was a consultant to the 1970 White House Conference on Children and an invited speaker to the White House Fellows.
Dr. Gordon was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997,1998 and 1999. He was the recipient of the American Psychological Foundation's 1999 Gold Medal Award for Enduring Contribution to Psychology in the Public Interest. He was also the recipient of the 2000 Lifetime Achievement Award from the California Psychological Association.
He was married to Linda Adams, the President of Gordon Training International, and had two adult daughters and two grandchildren.