Ted Strickland - Early Life

Early Life

Born in Lucasville, Ohio, Strickland was one of nine children; his father was a steelworker. A 1959 graduate of Northwest High School, Strickland went on to be the first member of his family to attend college. Strickland was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in history with a minor in psychology from Asbury College in 1963. In 1966, he received a Master of Arts degree in guidance counseling from the University of Kentucky and a Master of Divinity from the Asbury Theological Seminary in 1967. He then returned to the University of Kentucky to earn his Ph.D in counseling psychology in 1980. He is married to Frances Strickland, an educational psychologist and author of a widely used screening test for kindergarten-age children.

Strickland worked as a counseling psychologist at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio. He was an administrator at a Methodist children's home and was a professor of psychology at Shawnee State University. Strickland is an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church, although his only known pastoral position within a church was a very brief associate pastoral position at Wesley United Methodist Church located at the corner of Offnere and Gallia Streets, Portsmouth, Ohio (now Cornerstone United Methodist Church).