Paul Popenoe

Born in Topeka, Kansas, in 1888, Paul Popenoe grew up in California and first became known for work in agriculture and plant exploration. He wrote on heredity and related topics early in his career, and he later became a prominent public voice in discussions of family life and marriage.

Popenoe is also closely associated with the American eugenics movement. He co-founded the Human Betterment Foundation and argued for the compulsory sterilization of people labeled mentally ill or disabled, views that are now discredited and condemned for the harm they supported.

Later, he turned toward counseling and founded the American Institute of Family Relations in Los Angeles, becoming a major popularizer of marriage counseling in the United States. Because of that shift, he is remembered both as an early builder of family counseling and as a figure whose earlier advocacy reflects one of the darker strands of 20th-century social thought.