A Brief History

Theodore Lentz was born on a farm near Platte City, Missouri, on October 31, 1888 and spent the first 25 years of his life there. He received his bachelor's degree from Park College in 1914 and briefly worked for the Y.M.C.A. in Chicago. Later, he studied with John Dewey and received his Ph.D. in 1925 from Columbia University.

It was during his graduate studies in psychology that he became interested in a scientific approach to the study of character. For Lentz, human character was at the core of understanding war and peace, and he believed scientific methodology would yield accurate information about character. In 1930, he established the Character Research Institute at Washington University (St. Louis) where he held a faculty position in the department of education. A science of peace, as outlined by Lentz, would be a science of values as well as fact. Inquiry should be motivated by compassion as well as curiosity and would recognize the importance of human welfare as well as truth.

The bombing of Hiroshima led to a turning point in Dr. Lentz' life. He retired early to devote himself full-time to develop a "science of peace." In 1955, he published his first book, Towards A Science of Peace. It called for a mandate to apply human sciences to the discovery of better methods for social and economic cooperation. Dr. Lentz continued to develop this theme in other publications, including: Towards A Technology of Peace (1972), and Humatriotism: Human Interest in Peace and Survival (editor, 1976). Through his writing, lectures, and his charismatic efforts, Dr. Lentz sparked the minds of students and social science researchers, and inspired the founding of peace research centers in North America, Western Europe, Japan and Nigeria.

The Lentz Peace Research Association, which Ted Lentz founded originally in 1930 as the Character Research Institute at Washington University in St. Louis, is the oldest continuously operating peace research center in the world.

Theodore Lentz died in 1976. His endowment allows the organization he initiated over a half century ago, now the Lentz Peace Research Association, to carry on his mission of understanding the causes of war and the conditions for peace.

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About Us

Board Members

- Joyce Best
- Cassandra Butler
- Kim Jayne
- Lisa Martino-Taylor
- Gloria Sennert
- RB Reckamp
- Robert Reinhold

Constitution and Bylaws

Download Lentz Association Constitution and Bylaws.pdf

Lentz Fellows in Peace
and Conflict Resolution Research

In 1993, the LPRA initiated the Theodore Lentz Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Peace and Conflict Resolution Research. For sixteen years, LPRA partnered with the International Studies Department at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, bringing a new professor each year to teach courses in peace studies while pursuing his/her research and presenting seminars in the area. These competitively selected fellows came from all over the world and pursued a wide variety of research topics.

During 2008-09, the fellowship was held by Dr. Sapir Handelman from Israel. His research involved assembling Israeli and Palestinian St. Louisans to work out a peace plan for their countries-of-origin before a local audience over several weeks. These assemblies, while highly controversial in nature, were also stimulating and productive in their effects. Dr. Handelman's view was that such assemblies were essential, both for balancing governmental negotiations, and for helping a society prepare to live under a peace settlement. During academic years 2009-11, because of state funding cuts at UMSL, we continued co-sponsoring Dr. Handelman but with Wayne State University in Detroit. From there he was able to replicate his Minds of Peace Experiments in a number of places in the U.S., in Canada and in Israel/Palestine.

For the academic year 2012-13 LPRA partnered with the Webster University Institute for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies to sponsor Dr. Charlotte Walker-Said, a doctoral recipient from Yale University's Department of History.

2012-2013: Dr. Charlotte Walker-Said - Yale University
2008-2009: Dr. Sapir Handelman - Israel
2004-2005: Mark S. Stein, Ph.D., Political Science
- Yale University
2002-2003: Emmanuel N.T. Mentan, Ph.D., Political Science
- University of Nigeria, Nsukka
2001-2002: Julia Chaitin, Ph.D., Social Psychology
- Ben Gurion University of the Negev
1999-2000: Ismene Gizelis, Ph.D., School of Politics and Economics
- Claremont Graduate University
1998-1999: Anna C. Snyder, Ph.D., Social Sciences
- Syracuse University
1997-1998: John D. Sislin, Ph.D., Political Science
- Indiana University
1996-1997: Daniel Lieberfeld, Ph.D., Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
-Tufts University
1995-1996: Ho-Won Jeong, Ph.D., Political Science
-The Ohio State University -
1994-1995: Sean Byrne, Ph.D., International Relations
- Syracuse University
1993-1994: Andrew P. Dunne, Ph.D., Political Science
- University of Chicago

Theodore F. Lentz
International Peace Research Award
Created in 1972 by St. Louis artist Fred Dreher

Lentz International Peace Research Award Recipients

From 1973-1990 the Lentz Peace Research Association invited the best peace researchers around the world to St. Louis, to speak to the community and receive the Lentz International Peace Research Award.

1972: Arun K. Mitra, Pres. Character Research Assoc.
1973: Bert Röling, Netherlands
1974: Hanna and Alan Newcombe, Canada
1975: Anatol Rapoport, Austria
1977: Elise and Kenneth Boulding, United States
1980: Harold Guetzkow, United States
1982: Marek Thee, Norway
1984: Lothar Schulze, Federal Republic of Germany
1986: Dieter Senghaas, Federal Republic of Germany
1990: Gene Sharp, United States

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