Dirk died peacefully at home on Sunday March 28th, 2010 in Vancouver, Canada. He was a psychologist, writer, poet, journalist, editor, broadcaster and critical reviewer. Dirk was born on Feb 21, 1933 in Rimsting, Germany to the late Olga (Kurnik) and Albrecht Schaeffer. He was predeceased by his brothers, Nick and Erwin, and his sister, Marlies. Dirk is survived by Iris Sulyma of Vancouver Canada, his beloved wife for 35 years, sister Angelika Schneider of Germany, brother David of England, sister-in-law Eunice of Ohio, daughter Sandra (Alexis Talavera) of Miami, son Judas (Deborah Price) of Rhode Island, grandchildren Kyle (and Meghan Skinner), Kara (Skinner), and Adam (Price-Schaeffer), great grandson Devun (Skinner), and many nieces and nephews.
Dirk grew up in Croton-on-Hudson and Cornwall on Hudson at his mother’s boarding school, Amity Hall (New York). He attended Hessian Hills School, and local schools in Cornwall and Virginia, graduating from Alma High School (Michigan) in 1949. Dirk attended Swarthmore College (Pennsylvania) the following year, and then embarked upon a career in journalism and broadcasting, including work for the Armed Forces Network Radio (Munich). In 1954-57 he had a regular column in Metronome (New York) magazine reviewing primarily jazz, and other music, theatre, books and ballet. In addition, he provided daily film reviews and entertainment features for the Daily News, Philadelphia. At this time, he wrote special features for United Press International (New York) and worked in public relations for radio stations, construction and transportation clients. Thereafter, Dirk remained an Alec Wilder fan and was able to name tunes in three notes, and could recite record and movie credits over a wide range of genres.
Dirk returned to university in 1959 and was a star player on the Rutgers, CBS TV College Bowl champion team (1960), and editor of both the Gleaner weekly newspaper and the Mneme year books (1959-61). He received his Bachelor of Arts in English, Rutgers South Jersey in 1961, his Masters of Arts, Psychology from Temple University in 1962, and his Doctor’s in Clinical Psychology from Rutgers University in 1968.
Dirk taught at Douglas College, New Jersey (1964-66) before joining the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Alberta (1966-78). He wrote, edited and translated books and papers on topics ranging from projective testing and gender differences in psychological tests, to measuring the quality of psychology departments through publication and citation rates, and the philosophy of social science methods. Dirk developed the University of Alberta Student Course Guide providing ratings of courses and instructors, and published an Ombudsman column in the university paper, the Gateway. During this period he continued his broadcasting interests with CKUA Radio, providing daily and weekly film reviews, a weekly music program, and a weekly interview program, while appearing on local and national radio and TV.
Dirk continued to teach at universities and colleges in Chicago (1978-82), Alberta (1983-92) and British Columbia (1993-1998), with a focus on providing university transfer courses in aboriginal communities. He provided psychological assessment services and outplacement services throughout this period. Dirk was also involved with communications for the Liberal party’s in Alberta and in British Columbia. He continued publishing articles (Psychology Today) and in local and national newspapers, and developed an interest in statistically validating the bias of figure skating judges. In 1993 he published a ‘wonderfully perverse’ science fiction story, Three Moral Tales (ON SPEC).
A life long writer to the Editors of the Globe and Mail, Edmonton Journal & Vancouver Sun, his last letter was published just a few months ago. His insightful, concise and clear writing style was made palatable, if not digestible by his acerbic and pithy humor, and it, as he, will be missed.