Stevens, David Harrison, 1884-1980

David H. Stevens was an educator, author, vice-president of the General Education Board (1930-1938), and director of the Humanities Division of the Rockefeller Foundation (1932-1949.

David Harrison Stevens was born in 1884 in Wisconsin. He married Ruth Frances Davis in Hartford, Wisconsin in 1915 and they had three children.

He graduated from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin in 1906 and later became a trustee and lifelong supporter of the school. He received a Master's Degree in English from Harvard University in 1912 and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Chicago in 1914. He received an honorary doctor of letters degree from Lawrence University in 1931.

Stevens served in the United States Army where he entered with the rank of Captain and was affiliated with the military intelligence branch. Stevens served under John Manly, head of the Bureau of Ciphers and Code-reading in the Intelligence Division. From 1918-1919, Stevens was manager of 180 language specialists covering "suspected mail and secret lines."

Stevens taught English Literature at the University of Chicago from 1912-1930. His scholarly interests included Milton, drama, and British politics and history.

He served as secretary of the University of Chicago English Department, also under John Manly, and assistant to the President and Dean of the College of Arts, Literature, and Science.

Stevens left the University of Chicago to serve as vice-president of the General Education Board of the Rockefeller Foundation from 1930-1938. In addition, Stevens was the Director of the Humanities Division of the Rockefeller Foundation from 1932-1949, though he continued his involvement after his retirement. In 1946, he went on a mission to Japan as part of an American post World War II goodwill effort to evaluate the efficiency of the Japanese educational system. His book, The Changing Humanities; an Appraisal of Old Values and New Uses (1953), documented his view of the Humanities in American colleges and universities. It was published in Korean as well as English. Stevens was also a member of the American Council of Learned Societies.

Stevens published other books including Party Politics and English Journalism, 1702-1742 (1916), The Home Guide to Good Reading (1920), The Stevens Handbook of Punctuation (1923), Types of English Drama 1660-1780 (1923), The Teaching of College Composition (1927), College Composition (1927), Milton Papers (1927), Reference Guide to Milton, from 1800 to Present Day (1930), Ten Talents in the American Theatre (1957), and What Are the Humanities? (1975). He co-edited a book with his wife titled American Patriotic Prose and Verse (1917). He also dictated an oral history to Robert E. Gard titled A Time of Humanities (1976).

After his retirement, Stevens made his home in Ephraim, Wisconsin and devoted time to community involvement and preserving the history of Ephraim and Door County, Wisconsin.

David Harrison Stevens died in 1980.