Murray Straus, founder and co-director of UNH’s Family Research Lab, and his wife Dorothy listen while he is roasted and toasted at a celebration of his 80th birthday earlier this month during the laboratory’s annual international conference on family violence research. More than 225 former students, colleagues, friends and family attended. Straus started his career with a focus on rural sociology, joining UNH in 1968. He founded the lab in 1979, conducted the first national family violence survey and is credited with bringing much needed attention to the topic. One colleague said the field of family violence would not exist were it not for the efforts of Straus. Read more at http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/07132006/nhnews-ph-por-murray.html

Murray Straus with his senior assistant, Doreen Cole.