Born February 5, 1924, in Butte, Nebraska, Donald O. Clifton served in World War II as a navigator and bombardier and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for his heroic strengths.
After the war, he returned to civilian life and taught educational psychology at University of Nebraska-Lincoln from 1950 to 1969. He then helped start Selection Research Inc. (SRI), a customer research company that merged with the polling firm organization called Gallup in 1988. This company was founded in 1958 by George Horace Gallup.
All of these events built up Don’s intense passion to study human development psychology in order to discover what is not wrong with people, but what is right with them. He sought not to simply understand who they are, but who they could become.
In 1999 he conducted the first official Clifton StrengthsFinder, presently known as the CliftonStrengths assessment.
Shortly preceding his passing in 2003, Don Clifton was honored by the American Psychological Association with a Presidential Commendation as the Father of Strengths-Based Psychology. The assessment has now been completed by more than 29 million people world-wide.