SGS GRITS Hall of Fame

GRITS Hall of Fame Member

2012 Inductee

Dr. Wiley Mangum, a native of the great state of Texas and Professor Emeritus of Aging Studies at the University of South Florida (2003), holds BA (1958)and MA (1960) degrees in psychology from the University of Texas at Austin and a PhD (1971) in sociology/gerontology from the University of Southern California. His involvement in gerontology began in 1963 in the School of Public Health at UCLA where he was a member of a research team studying retirement housing in California. It continued at Florida State University from 1969 to 1972, where he taught sociology and did research on the post-hospital adjustment of longtime patients of state hospitals in Florida. Most of his career in gerontology was spent, however, in the Department of Gerontology at the University of South Florida, where he taught and did research for 31 years, from 1972 to 2003.

In addition to doing research on housing for the elderly and other aspects of aging, including educational issues, he taught such popular courses as Introduction to Gerontology, Sociocultural Aspects of Aging, Research Methods, Gerontological Research and Planning, Administrative Aspects of Demography, Ethical Issues in Aging, and Housing for the Elderly. Dr. Mangum was a major force in the development of curriculum and programs at the undergraduate/graduate levels and in the creation of the interdisciplinary PhD in aging studies at USF. His numerous writings are published in such journals as The Gerontologist, Educational Gerontology, Gerontology and Geriatrics Education, the Journal of Housing for the Elderly, and the Journal of Applied Gerontology. He made important contributions not only to the gerontology program at USF but across the region and nation through the success of thousands of graduates now teaching in gerontology programs and those coordinating and providing services to older adults in Florida and the nation. He also contributed to the development of the 1990 Standards and Guidelines for Gerontology Programs promulgated by the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education. He served as both Associate Chair and Interim Chair of the Department of Gerontology and is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America. Upon his retirement from the University of South Florida in 2003, Dr. Mangum was honored by the School of Aging Studies, which established the annually awarded Wiley P. Mangum Scholarship and the Wiley P. Mangum Outstanding Service Award in his name.

Dr. Mangum served in leadership roles in the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE) in such capacities as Editor of the AGHExchange, and on the Executive, Publications, Membership, Public Policy and Long Range Planning Committees. He chaired the Local Arrangements Committee for the 1989 meeting in Tampa, was elected a Charter Fellow in 1997, and was invited to give the AGHE Distinguished Lecture in 2003. He served as Treasurer and, then, President of Sigma Phi Omega, the National Gerontology Academic and Professional Society. As an original founder of the Southern Gerontological Society (SGS), he was the founding Co-editor, with Dr. Tom Rich, of the Journal of Applied Gerontology and was Chair of the Research Committee and By-Laws Committee for SGS, Program Chair for the 2002 SGS meeting in Orlando., and the Senior Representative on the Board of Directors for a number of years. He continues to be an active member and supporter of SGS and was honored as one of the three 2012 GRITS awardees.

Dr. Mangum and Ann, his wife of 57 years (as of 2012), moved to Sun City Center – a large retirement community on the West Coast of Florida – in 2002 and, whereas he had studied such facilities from the outside for almost 40 years, he's now studying one from the inside and enjoying it very much. He and Ann also enjoy occasional visits from their son, Jeff, daughter-in-law, Debbi, and grandsons David and Daniel.