Carlfred Broderick

Carlfred Broderick was a sociologist, psychologist, and family therapist. He was a behaviorist and helped marriage and relationship partners in crisis by teaching them working tools for real-life situations.

He was born on April 7, 1932, in Salt Lake City, Utah, and reared in Long Beach, California. He earned his bachelor’s degree in social relations from Harvard University graduating magna cum laude. He held a PhD in child development and family relations from Cornell University and did postdoctoral work at the University of Minnesota.

Broderick’s career was primarily in academia; he was associate professor of family development at the University of Georgia for four years and then a professor of family relationships at Pennsylvania State University for eleven years. He then was a professor at the University of Southern California where he taught and headed the marriage and family therapy program. He was also a relationship counselor. He chaired the department of sociology from 1989 to 1991.

He also assisted colleges and school districts in North and South America, Europe, and Australia to development of family-life and sex-education programs. He was a guest on many radio and television talk shows such as The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. He authored books for scholarly and general audiences and his views and findings on courtship, marriage, and human sexuality were featured in such publications as Time, Life, Newsweek, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. His college text Marriage and the Family was widely used for many years.

He also wrote books geared toward members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which he was a member. His titles include One Flesh, One Heart: Putting Celestial Love into Your Temple Marriage; Couples: How to Confront Problems and Maintain Loving Relationships; The Uses of Adversity; and My Parents Married on a Dare: And Other Favorite Essays on Life, to name a few.

He served in several professional associations, such as the American Sociological Association, the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, the American College of Sexology, to name a few. He was president of the Association of Mormon Counselors and Psychotherapists from 1982 to 1983. He was honored with the Distinguished Service Award from the National Council on Family Relations in 1989.

Broderick and his wife, Kathleen, were the parents of eight children. He succumbed to cancer on July 27, 1999.