87. Paul Bowman⁴ Popenoe (Frederick Oliver³, Willis Parkison², James¹) was born Topeka, Shawnee Co, KS 16 Oct 1888. Paul died 19 Jun 1979 Miami, Dade Co, FL, at 90 years of age.

He married Betty Stankowitch 23 August 1920 in New York City, NY. Betty was the daughter of Anthony Stankowitch and Genevieve Lee. Betty died 26 Jun 1978 Altadena, Los Angeles Co, CA. Paul grew up in Topeka, KS, where he attended Washburn Academy. In 1904 he moved with his family to Los Angeles and in 1907 to Altadena, CA. He attended Occidental College (which later awarded him an honorary ScD) and Stanford University but never graduated, due to his father’s illness which forced him to leave in his senior year. He became city editor of the Pasadena Star newspaper. Between 1911 and 1913 Paul by himself and with his brother Wilson toured the date growing areas in North Africa and the Middle East and sent back many date palms. In 1913 he published his first book, Date Growing in the Old and New Worlds. After this he moved to Washington, DC where he became editor of the Journal of Heredity. In World War I he was commissioned a captain in the Medical Corps where he promoted programs to reduce venereal disease. He continued this as Secretary of the American Social Hygiene Association in New York.

Immediately after his marriage to Betty Stankowitch, they moved to the Coachella Valley in California where he began to grow dates and write books on marriage and the family. In 1926 he moved his family to Altadena and became secretary of the Human Betterment Foundation which was studying and promoting eugenic sterilization of the unfit. Earlier he had co-authored Applied Eugenics, which was the standard text in the field for decades until the Nazi championing of eugenics made it a politically incorrect concept in the US. To avoid the word, American eugenicists coined a new term, social biology, and it was this term that Paul used to describe himself in his later years.

By 1930 Paul became more interested in promoting good marriages and family life and he founded the American Institute for Family Relations in Los Angeles. He initiated marriage counselling in the US, something he had first observed in Austria. He continued to be actively involved with the Institute well into his 80s, meanwhile writing many books, a newspaper column and magazine articles, and giving lectures on marriage and the family throughout the country. In an appearance on the Art Linkletter TV program, he was the first to suggest computer dating.

Paul Bowman Popenoe and Betty Stankowitch had the following children:

+ 132 i. Paul⁵ Popenoe was born  1922.

+ 133 ii. Oliver Popenoe was born  1926.

+ 134 iii. John Popenoe was born  1929.

+ 135 iv. David Popenoe was born  1932.

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