Richard Waites - Background and Education

Background and Education

Waites spent his early years in Georgia and Florida. While still a secondary school student, Waites developed an unusually early fascination with courtroom proceedings. At the age of 11 (1962), his father introduced him to a local Georgia state trial judge in connection with a school academic project. After some interaction, the trial judge invited Waites to attend court sessions as an observer which he did after school hours on regular occasions. (The widely acclaimed television series of Perry Mason first aired from 1957-1966. The Perry Mason series was the first of the courtroom drama genre and is still considered a classic.)

Waites conducted his undergraduate and early graduate work in social science and psychology at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton, Georgia. The psychology department at the university is believed to be one of only two university psychology departments in the United States that focus on the study of humanistic psychology.