William J. Yankee
June 17, 1999
William J. Yankee, former WMU assistant professor of psychology
and former president of Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse
City, Mich., died June 3. He was 73.
Yankee, who worked at WMU from 1960 until 1966, was a former
Kalamazoo Police Department detective and Friend of the Court
for Kalamazoo County Circuit Courts. After coming to WMU, he
did polygraph research and taught local police how to administer
the test. He left WMU in 1966 to become president of Delta Community
College. He was named president of Northwestern Michigan College
in 1974.
His expertise in polygraph was employed again after he left
NMC to move to North Carolina to work as a polygrapher and consultant.
In 1987 he took over the U.S. Defense Department's Army Polygraph
School which trains polygraphers for the FBI, Secret Service,
armed services and other government agencies. He retired in 1995
to homes in Traverse City and Pensacola, Fla.
Yankee received bachelor's and master's degrees in psychology
at WMU and a doctoral degree in education from Michigan State
University.
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