George Caspar Homans, an American sociologist, was a leading theorist in developing testable hypotheses and explanations about fundamental social processes in small groups. He was born August 11, 1910, in Boston, Massachusetts, the eldest child of Robert Homans, a lawyer and a fellow of Harvard Corporation, and of Abigail Adams Homans, a descendant of President John Adams. He married Nancy Parshall Cooper in 1941, and they had two children, Elizabeth Susan and Peter Homans graduated from Harvard University in English literature in 1932. Although he came from a long line of lawyers Homans chose to become a junior fellow in sociology at Harvard, 1934 to 1939, and then as professor of sociology when he was invited.

Homans taught at Harvard from 1939 to 1941, served four years as a naval officer during World War II, and then returned to Harvard where he was a faculty member from 1946 until 1970, when he retired. Homans was a fellow at...