Rensis Likert is well known in the field of conflict management. He was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming, on August 5, 1903, the son of George Herbert, an engineer, and Cornelia Zonne Likert. In 1926, he graduated from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Two years later he married Jane Gibson, an editor and consultant. The couple had two children, Elizabeth and Patricia.

Likert continued his studies at Columbia University in New York City, earning a Ph.D. in 1932. By that time he had begun his teaching career as an instructor at New York University, New York City, becoming an assistant professor in 1935. Likert spent a year on the faculty of Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, 1935-1936, before being named head of the Division of Program Surveys, Bureau of Agricultural Economics in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. Also during that period, he was research director for...