Neil Wylie, 1940-2021

Neil Wylie, who taught psychology at Cornell College from 1966 to 1981, died June 16, 2021, in Hartford, Maine. 

At Cornell he developed an origins of behavior interdisciplinary major and spent two January terms in Colorado with students exploring animal behavior and ecology. In 1971 Wylie and four students conducted a yearlong experiment with 12 mice of three different varieties caught near campus. The study was considered a ground-breaking test of the use of wild rodents whose heredity and behavior were uninfluenced by laboratory breeding and confinement. After they completed the experiment, the mice were released.

Wylie’s roles at Cornell included chairing the Psychology Department and serving as assistant dean of the college. In 1980-81 he was an American Council on Education Governmental Fellow with the Army Continuing Education System in Washington, D.C. At the end of that year Wylie resigned and moved to Michigan as vice president at the Great Lakes College Association, where he worked until 1989. He finished his career as the director of the Council of Presidents of New England Land Grant Universities. Upon retirement in 2002 he and his wife, Jane Wylie, enjoyed different areas of the country, moving from Durham, North Carolina, to Denver, Colorado, then Holland, Michigan, finally settling in Maine and as snowbirds in Arizona. 

He is survived by his wife, Jane, who in 2022 established the Neil and Jane Wylie Endowed Scholarship Fund. Because the Wylies so enjoyed the Cornell experience provided to them and the students of the 1970s, the fund is designed to support similar opportunities for students of today and in the future.