Houle, Cyril Orvin, 1913-....

During the Second World War several programs of instruction were instituted at the University of Chicago. The major war activity of the University, in addition to research, was the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) inaugurated in the spring of 1943. The students in this program were enlisted and drafted soldiers who had demonstrated on intelligence and aptitude tests that they possessed outstanding qualifications for further training. The University provided instruction in basic-phase subjects and in several advanced courses including medicine, pre-medicine, area and language, and psychology. Those who had had only high school or a limited college experience were assigned to the basic phase of the program, and were given a broad background of training with instruction in English, history, mathematics, physics, chemistry, engineering, and geography. The trainees who had completed some college work or who had special qualifications were assigned to one of a series of advanced courses that provided specialized training. The last group to be trained at the University graduated in October 1944.

The other major program was the Civilian Pilot Training Program. Originally established in 1939 to teach college and university students to fly, it was converted after the outbreak of war to a program of instruction for men in the armed services. Its name was changed to the CAA War Training Service (WTS) and provided instruction for Navy combat pilots, Army glider pilots, and Army flight instructors. These men took a two-month course, including ground school instruction and flight training. When the CPT Program was converted to military purposes, the University began a program to train civilian Aviation Ground School Instructors.

While the ASTP and the WTS were the major wartime training programs, the University did institute other smaller programs. Of note are the Civil Affairs Training School and Production Training for War Industries programs. The Civil Affairs Training School trained soldiers in military government at Provost Marshall General's School in Georgia and then they were sent to select universities for training in foreign languages and culture. At the University of Chicago, the soldiers were trained in Japanese language and culture. The Production Training for War Industries trained men for war industries through tuition free classes at the School of Business.

Cyril Houle has been a major figure in the history of continuing education as a teacher, writer and researcher. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Florida at Gainesville (1934) and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago (1940). He was the recipient of numerous honorary doctorates and the first recipient of the William Pearson Tolley Medal for Distinguished Leadership in Adult Education (1966).

From 1939 to 1979, Houle served on the faculty of the University of Chicago, from 1944-1952 as the Dean of University College. In 1953 he devoted himself full time to graduate training and research, particularly to the master's and doctoral programs in adult and higher education. He has served as visiting instructor, professor and lecturer at the University of California at Berkeley (1940), the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (1960), and the University of Washington (1961). He held a Fulbright Scholarship in the United Kingdom (1950-1951), was director of a Unesco workshop in Sweden (1950), served as consultant to the universities of Liberia and Nigeria (1966), andas senior consultant to the Educational Testing Service (1972).He was twice appointed to the National Advisory Council of Extension and Continuing Education by Lyndon B.Johnson.

Houle's research took him abroad to England (1954), to study university extra-mural work in Africa and the Caribbean (1958-1959), to folk schools in Denmark and to Oxford University where he was Visiting Senior Research Specialist in Extra-Mural Studies.(1967-1968).

Houle is a member of many organizations. He served as centennial president of the Chicago Literary Club, for which he also gave several addresses. Houle has been awarded the 1966 Citation from the Association of University Evening Colleges (AUEC), the 1967 Award of Merit of the National Association of Public School Adult Education (NAPSAE) and the 1981 Imogene Okes Award for Outstanding Research in Adult Education from the Adult Education Association (AEA, now the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education, AAACE).

Houle has authored and co-authored numerous articles and chapters, as well as the following books:

Adult Education (with Floyd W. Reeves and Thomas Fansler) The Armed Services and Adult Education (with Elbert W. Burr, Thomas H. Hamilton, and John R. Tale) Continuing Learning in the Professions Continuing Your Education The Design of Education The Effective Board The External Degree The Inquiring Mind Libraries in Adult and Fundamental Education Patterns of Learning Residential Continuing Education The University, the Citizen and World Affairs (with Charles A. Nelson)