Edward F. Zigler, a psychologist who in the mid-1960s helped design Head Start, the vanguard federal government program for preschool children, died Feb. 7 at his home in North Haven, CT. He was 88.

Since 1965, more than 35 million children have been enrolled in Head Start, which each year provides early education and medical services to about a million children under 5 years old at a cost of about $10 billion.

In 1976, Dr. Zigler was named a Sterling professor, Yale University’s highest professorial honor. In 2005, Yale’s Bush Center for Child Development and Social Policy was renamed the Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy. He was director emeritus until his death.