1929 ORGANIZING MEETING, PACIFIC SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION (PACIFIC SOUTHWEST SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION), LOS ANGELES, OCTOBER 1929
The Pacific Sociological Association (originally called the Pacific Southwest Sociological Society and then a year later in 1930 the Pacific Sociological Society) was established in October 1929. A small group of sociologists was called together by Emory S. Bogardus of the Department of Sociology at the University of Southern California for the purpose of organizing the Society. The initial officers elected at this meeting were President, Emory S. Bogardus (USC), Vice President, William Kirk (Pomona College), Secretary/Treasurer, L. D. Osborn (University of Redlands), and Program Chair, George Day (Occidental College). The charter members agreed that they had been in isolation at their respective institutions long enough. They embraced the idea of a colleague, Earle E. Eubank, who said, “Where there is contact of human minds, there association exits; where there is no contact, there is a state of isolation.” So the charter members decided to illustrate one of sociology’s basic concepts, “social interaction,” which they defined as “that dynamic interplay of forces in which contact between persons and groups results in a modification of the behavior of the participants.” As stated in the original constitution, the purpose and object of the Society was the promotion of both sociological research and the teaching of sociology in universities, colleges, community colleges, and high schools in the Pacific area.
Emory S. Bogardus was also the founder of Alpha Kappa Delta, the National Honor Society for Sociology. He was born in Belvidere, Illinois in 1882 (the same birthplace of the current Executive Officer, Dean S. Dorn) and died in Los Angeles in 1973.
