A sociologist who is best known for his studies concerning mental health, August Hollingshead spent most of his career as an educator and author. He was born in Lyman, Wyoming, on April 15, 1907, the son of William Thomas, a stock breeder, and Daisy Rollins Hollingshead. He left home for undergraduate work at the University of California, Berkeley, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1931. In November of that year, he married Carol E. Dempsey and the couple later had two daughters, Anne and Ellen. Hollingshead continued his studies at Berkeley, earning a master's degree in 1933.

After he received a PhD from the University of Nebraska in 1935, Hollingshead began his career as an instructor in sociology at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. From there, he joined the faculty of the University of Alabama, 1935-1936, and then went to Indiana University in Bloomington from 1936 to 1947 where he attained the...