By Lee Shearer
lshearer@onlineathens.com

   Paul Torrance, known worldwide for his pioneering research in creativity, died Saturday. He was 87.
   A professor emeritus of educational psychology at the University of Georgia, Torrance developed the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, which helped dispel the idea that IQ tests were the sole gauge of intelligence, and gained worldwide fame for a global competition called the Future Problem Solving Program.
   Developed in 1974 for gifted students at Clarke Central High School in Athens, the Future Problem Solving Program grew into an international program involving an estimated 300,000 students in 41 states and several foreign countries.
   Torrance was the author of more than 1,000 published articles and books on creativity, many published in the years after he had officially retired.
   The son of a Milledgeville farmer, Torrance was motivated by a love of people in his creativity research, said his closest surviving relative, first cousin Peggy Miller of Warner Robins.
   ''He just had a heart for learning and a heart for teaching, and a heart for people,'' Miller said.
   ''His most endearing quality was his unshakeable belief in all people and their ability to use the creativity to be all that they can be,'' said Mary Frasier, a professor of educational psychology at UGA.
   Frasier, a colleague of Torrance's for nearly 30 years, founded UGA's Torrance Center for Creative Studies to further his work.
   ''I didn't want his work and presence to fade away when others who didn't know him came along. His work in creativity is unparalleled. His recognition of ability in others, especially children from disadvantaged backgrounds, has permanently changed the way the entire world reviews talent in everyone, regardless of their circumstances,'' she said.
   Services will be at 11 a.m. Thursday at the First Baptist Church in Athens.
   

Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Tuesday, July 15, 2003.