Brown, Elmer Ellsworth, 1861-1934

Elmer Ellsworth Brown, developed and headed the Department of Pedagogy (School of Education) at the University of California, Berkeley from 1892 to 1906.

Elmer Brown, an educator and university administrator, was born August 26, 1861 at Kiantone, New York. He grew up on a farm near Sublette, Illinois and began his college education at Illinois State Normal University, graduating in 1881. He earned a B.A. from the University of Michigan in 1889 and a Ph.D. in philosophy of education from the University of Halle-Wittenberg, Germany in 1890. Brown became principal of the public schools in Rockport, Illinois in 1878, a teacher in Astoria, Illinois in 1880 and Assistant State Secretary of the Illinois Y.M.C.A. in 1884. After completing his education, Brown became a high school principal in Jackson, Michigan (1890-1891), acting assistant professor of the Art and Science of Teaching at the University of Michigan (1891), and professor of the Art and Science of Teaching at the Universtiy of California at Berkeley (1891-1905). In 1905 he was elected to serve a two-year term as president of the National Council on Education and in 1906 was appointed United States Commissioner of Education by President Theodore Roosevelt. In 1911 Brown became Chancellor of New York University, where he remained until 1933. After retirement, he was Chancellor Emeritus until his death on November 3, 1934.

Chancellor of New York University.