Alberty, Harold Bernard (06 October 1890–02 February 1971), professor of curriculum design and development, was born in Lockport, New York, the son of Willard K. Alberty and Carrie L. Post. Alberty attended rural schools in northeastern Ohio and was graduated from Liverpool Township High School in Medina County, Ohio, in 1908. In 1912 Alberty was graduated from Baldwin University (now Baldwin-Wallace College) in Berea, Ohio, where he studied liberal arts and pre-law subjects. He taught eighth grade in the Berea schools during his final year of college in an effort to underwrite his tuition and continued to hold this position until 1913, when he was graduated from Cleveland Law School and was admitted to the Ohio bar. Because no law positions were then available, Alberty continued to teach, an activity that fascinated him, and he rose quickly in the county school administration, serving as assistant principal of Berea High School from 1913 to 1915; superintendent of Berea schools from 1915 to 1917; district superintendent of Cuyahoga County schools from 1917 to 1920; and assistant Cuyahoga County superintendent from 1920 to 1924. He received an A.M. in school administration from Ohio State University in 1923. Throughout this period Alberty planned to return to the practice of law. In 1916 he married Anna Hower; they had one child. Their marriage ended with her death in the latter 1940s....
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Alberty, Harold Bernard (1890-1971), professor of curriculum design and development
Craig Kridel
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Alcott, A. Bronson (1799-1888), Transcendentalist and reformer
Frederick C. Dahlstrand
Alcott, A. Bronson (29 November 1799–04 March 1888), Transcendentalist and reformer, was born Amos Bronson Alcox in Wolcott, Connecticut, the son of Joseph Chatfield Alcox and Anna Bronson, farmers. Farming the rocky Connecticut soil was not lucrative, and Alcott worked hard with his parents to help support seven younger siblings, thereby limiting his opportunities for a formal education. He attended the local district school until age ten, but thereafter his intellectual growth largely depended on his own reading and discussions with friends of a similar scholarly bent, the first being his cousin William Andrus Alcott. William later attended Yale College and established a career as a physician and popular author of health manuals, but continuing poverty prevented Bronson from obtaining a college education. At age fifteen he, like many of his young Connecticut contemporaries, began peddling small manufactured goods, first in Massachusetts and New York, then in Virginia and the Carolinas....
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Alcott, A. Bronson (1799-1888)
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Alderman, Edwin Anderson (1861-1931), educational reformer and university president
Jennings L. Wagoner
Alderman, Edwin Anderson (15 May 1861–29 April 1931), educational reformer and university president, was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, the son of James Alderman, a timber inspector, and Susan Jane Corbett. Alderman attended private schools in Wilmington before spending two years (1876–1878) at the Bethel Military Academy near Warrenton, Virginia. In 1878 he entered the University of North Carolina, from which he received a Ph.B. with honors in English and Latin. His developing mastery of the beauty and power of the spoken word was recognized when he won a medal for oratory at the 1882 commencement exercises. In 1885 he married Emma Graves; they had three children, all of whom died in early childhood....
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Antony, Milton (1789-1839), physician and educator
Teresa Castelão-Lawless
Antony, Milton (07 August 1789–19 September 1839), physician and educator, was born presumably in Henry County, Virginia, the son of James Antony, Sr., a military officer, and Ann Tate. At sixteen, he became an apprentice under physician Joel Abbott of Monticello, Georgia. At nineteen he enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine but, owing to economic circumstances, had to leave without a diploma. He married Nancy Godwin in 1809. They had eleven children....
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Bardin, Shlomo (1898-1976), Jewish educator
Deborah Dash Moore
Bardin, Shlomo ( December 1898–16 May 1976), Jewish educator, was born Shlomo Bardinstein in Zhitomir, Ukraine, the son of Haim Israel Bardinstein and Menia Weissburd, members of Zhitomir’s Jewish bourgeoisie. After completing his secondary education at the Zhitomir School of Commerce in 1918, he left Russia for Palestine, which was probably when he shortened his name to “Bardin.” From 1920 he worked as an administrative assistant at the Hebrew Secondary School in Haifa before leaving in 1923 for the University of Berlin, where he studied history and economics. Two years later he entered University College in London for a year’s study of English. Bardin returned to Haifa in 1926 and spent two years teaching at the Hebrew Boarding School. He went to New York City in 1928 and was accepted as a graduate student at Columbia University’s Teachers College. At Columbia he studied comparative education with progressive educators who urged him to research the Danish Folk High School to examine its creative use of music to reach disaffected youth. He received his M.A. in 1930. In 1931 Bardin married a sculptor, Ruth Jonas, daughter of a wealthy Brooklyn lawyer; the couple would have two children....
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Barnard, Henry (1811-1900), educator and editor
Edith Nye MacMullen
Barnard, Henry (24 January 1811–05 July 1900), educator and editor, was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the son of Chauncey Barnard, a sea captain and farmer, and Betsey Andrews. Barnard spent his formative years in Connecticut and graduated from Yale in 1830. Immediately after college he taught school in Pennsylvania for a year and loathed it. He then read law and was admitted to the Connecticut bar in 1834; however, he never practiced. During the winter of 1832–1833 he spent three months in Washington, D.C., where he met many of the leading political figures of the day, and then traveled in the South. Still lacking direction, he embarked on a grand tour of Europe in March 1835; the impetus for the trip was his selection as one of the Connecticut delegates to the London international peace congress. While in England he was introduced to a number of the foremost Whig intellectuals, politicians, and reformers; at the time he seemed to be primarily interested in the cause of prison reform. After touring England he spent six months on the Continent before returning home to attend his ailing father....
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Berkson, Isaac Baer (1881-1975), educational philosopher
Henry F. Skirball
Berkson, Isaac Baer (23 December 1881–10 March 1975), educational philosopher, was born Isadore Berkson in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Henry Berkson, a merchant, and Jennie Berkman. He attended the City College of New York (1908–1912), where he received a B.A. in liberal arts, Greek, and Latin; and Columbia University and Teachers College (1912–1919), where he earned a master of arts in history of philosophy and sociology of education and a Ph.D. in philosophy and education. In 1919 he married Libbie Suchoff; the couple had three children....
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Bestor, Arthur Eugene (1879-1944), president of the Chautauqua Institution
Amy D. Rose
Bestor, Arthur Eugene (19 May 1879–03 February 1944), president of the Chautauqua Institution, was born in Dixon, Illinois, the son of Orson P. Bestor, a Baptist minister, and Laura Ellen Moore. Arthur Bestor attended Wayland Academy in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, before moving to the University of Chicago, from which he received a bachelor’s degree in 1901. From 1903 to 1905 Bestor pursued doctoral studies at the University of Chicago in history and political science but did not complete the degree. In 1905 he married Jeanette Louise Lemon; they had four children....
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Bevan, Arthur Dean (1861-1943), surgeon and reformer of medical education
William K. Beatty
Bevan, Arthur Dean (09 August 1861–10 June 1943), surgeon and reformer of medical education, was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Thomas Bevan, a physician, and Sarah Elizabeth Ramsey. After attending high school in Chicago, Bevan earned his Ph.B. at Yale’s Sheffield Scientific School in 1881. He then entered Rush Medical College in Chicago and obtained his M.D. in 1883. He finished first in the competitive examination for the U.S. Marine Hospital Service....
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Bevan, Arthur Dean (1861-1943)
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Blum, Virgil Clarence (1913-1993), educator, author, activist, and clergyman
Thaddeus J. Burch
Blum, Virgil Clarence (27 March 1913–05 April 1993), educator, author, activist, and clergyman, was born in Defiance, Iowa, one of twelve children of John Peter and Elizabeth (Rushenberg) Blum, both farmers. His grade school and high school years were spent at St. Peter's school in Defiance. In 1932 he began college at Dowling College, Des Moines, Iowa, and the next year transferred to Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. On 31 Aug. 1934 he entered the Society of Jesus at St. Stanislaus Seminary at Florissant, Missouri, where he earned a bachelor's degree in Latin and English in 1938. (A brother, Victor Joseph, also became a Jesuit and became a professor of geophysics and seismology at St. Louis University). Virgil studied philosophy at St. Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri, continuing studies in the summer until he earned a master's degree in history and political science in 1945....
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Brameld, Theodore Burghard Hurt (1904-1987), professor of philosophy and philosophy of education
Craig Kridel
Brameld, Theodore Burghard Hurt (20 January 1904–18 October 1987), professor of philosophy and philosophy of education, was born in Neillsville, Wisconsin, the son of Theodore E. Brameld, a real estate agent, and Minnie Dangers, a crafts teacher. Brameld was graduated in 1922 from Neillsville High School and attended Ripon College, from which he was graduated in 1926. He then held an administrative position at the college and in 1928 enrolled at the University of Chicago to study philosophy. He received a Ph.D. in 1931, having studied the works of ...
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Bulkley, John Williams (1802-1888), teacher, administrator, and educational reformer
Paul H. Mattingly
Bulkley, John Williams (03 November 1802–19 June 1888), teacher, administrator, and educational reformer, was born in Fairfield, Connecticut. The identities of his parents are unknown. Bulkley’s father arranged for his son’s common school education with an eye to mechanical pursuits, but young Bulkley’s inclinations gravitated toward more intellectual endeavors. About 1820 he moved to Clinton, New York, to prepare himself for Hamilton College. Focusing on the study of mathematics and the classics, he hoped to enter Hamilton as a sophomore. His health failed, however, and he was compelled to disrupt his educational ambitions and embark on a recuperative sea voyage. Bulkley never did return to college, but he had the satisfaction in 1853 of receiving an honorary master of arts from his intended alma mater....
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Byford, William Heath (1817-1890), gynecologist and advocate of medical education for women
William K. Beatty
Byford, William Heath (20 March 1817–21 May 1890), gynecologist and advocate of medical education for women, was born in Eaton, Ohio, the son of Henry Byford, a mechanic, and Hannah Swain. Henry Byford moved his family to southwestern Indiana shortly after William’s birth and died there nine years later. Young William did odd jobs to help out, but about 1830 Hannah Byford had to move the family to her father’s farm in Crawford County, Illinois. During the next few years William often asked to be allowed to learn a trade to help support the family and improve his own prospects. He finally became apprenticed to a tailor, who moved away two years later. At this time William decided on medicine for his career, although he never mentioned the reason. His reading and studies in chemistry, physiology, and natural history may have steered him in this direction....
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Carter, James Gordon (1795-1849), educational reformer
Frederick M. Binder
Carter, James Gordon (07 September 1795–21 July 1849), educational reformer, was born in Leominster, Massachusetts, the son of James Carter and Betsy Hale, farmers. Carter’s boyhood summers were spent helping his parents eke out a meager income from the land. He received his basic elementary education in the town’s winter school. Carter’s days on the farm came to an end in 1812 when he enrolled in Groton Academy. He supported himself there and later at Harvard College by teaching at various district and singing schools and by lecturing on the history of Masonry. Upon graduating from college with honors in 1820, Carter opened a school in Lancaster, Massachusetts, devoted to helping Harvard students overcome academic difficulties. He continued to teach there for ten years. Carter had experience with students with special needs, for during his final year at Harvard he taught a class of disruptive older students, most of them sailors, in Cohasset. At the end of the term his pupils joined with the school committee in presenting him with a letter of thanks for his effectiveness as a disciplinarian and teacher....
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Cobb, Lyman (1800-1864), educator and author
Edward L. Lach, Jr.
Cobb, Lyman (18 September 1800–26 October 1864), educator and author, was born in Lenox, Massachusetts, the son of Elijah William Cobb and Sally Whitney. His early years are shrouded in obscurity, but he most likely obtained an education in local country schools before entering the teaching profession at the age of sixteen. Cobb made his greatest contribution to the field of primary education as the author of numerous school textbooks, the first of which— ...
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Cubberley, Ellwood Patterson (1868-1941), educator and historian
Thomas V. O’Brien
Cubberley, Ellwood Patterson (06 June 1868–14 September 1941), educator and historian, was born in Andrews (then called Antioch), Indiana, the son of Edwin Blanchard Cubberley, a pharmacist, and Catherine Biles. His father owned a small drugstore where Cubberley, by the age of twelve, worked long hours. His father assumed that he would eventually take over the family business and prepared him accordingly. He attended public school in Andrews and in 1885 entered nearby Purdue University to study pharmacology. In the summer of 1886 he attended a lecture by ...
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Curry, Jabez Lamar Monroe (1825-1903), politician and educational reformer
Wayne Urban
Curry, Jabez Lamar Monroe (05 June 1825–12 February 1903), politician and educational reformer, was born in Lincoln County, Georgia, the son of William Curry and Susan Winn, planters. He attended school in Lincoln County until his family moved to Talladega County, Alabama, in 1838. In 1839 he entered Franklin College (now the University of Georgia) in Athens, Georgia. He graduated from Franklin in 1843 and then enrolled in the Law School of Harvard College. He received his law degree in 1845 and returned to Talladega, where he read law and then joined the bar. In 1847 Curry married Ann Alexander Bowie; they had four children, two of whom died in infancy....
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Dewey, Melvil (1851-1931), educational reformer and librarian
Wayne A. Wiegand
Dewey, Melvil (10 December 1851–26 December 1931), educational reformer and librarian, was born in Adams Center, New York, the son of Joel Dewey, a general store owner, and Eliza Greene. As a child, Dewey adopted his parents’ strict Republican and Baptist values and by the age of fifteen had defined his larger “destiny” as a “reformer” for the masses. In 1869 his family moved to Oneida, New York, where Dewey attended a local Baptist seminary. The following year he enrolled at Amherst College, where he began working in the college library in 1872. Perceiving a potential for libraries to educate the masses, he thereafter committed his life to improving librarianship. To that interest he added others like spelling and metric reform, all of which were aimed at saving time and eliminating waste. He once calculated that if children learned a simplified phonetic form of spelling and the metric system of weights and measures used by most of the rest of the world, educators could save students at least two years’ time that could be better spent reading good books....
