Gray, William S. (William Scott), 1885-1960

Educator. S.B., University of Chicago, 1913; A.M., Columbia University, 1914; Ph. D., University of Chicago, 1916. Principal of Training School, Illinois State Normal University, 1910-12. Assistant in education, University of Chicago, 1914-15; instructor in education, 1915-17; assistant dean of the College of Education, 1916-17; Dean of the College of Education, 1917-1931; assistant professor, 1917-18; associate professor, 1918-21; professor, 1921-1950. Director of Teacher Education, School of Education, University of Chicago; Director of Research in Reading, 1950-1960.

William Scott Gray (1885-1960), Professor of Education and Dean of the College of Education, was born in Coatsburg, Illinois. After studying at Illinois State Normal University, the University of Chicago, and Columbia University Teachers College, Gray returned to Chicago to earn his Ph.D. in 1916. Gray's dissertation on standardized reading tests was among the earliest reports on elementary school reading performance and propelled him into a leading position in the national movement for educational measurement. As Dean of the College of Education from 1917 to 1931, Gray conducted further investigations in reading and encouraged the use of quantitative tests in other areas of educational research.

When the College was dissolved in 1931, Gray became Director of Teacher Education in the School of Education. Two years later, when the School itself was disbanded and responsibility for teacher education dispersed to individual academic departments, Gray was appointed executive secretary of the Committee on the Preparation of Teachers, a group charged with coordinating teacher-training requirements and curricula. From 1933 to 1945, during a period of shifting educational policy, Gray was able to offer the Committee insights from his long administrative experience and serve as a bridge to earlier institutional structures.

In addition to his administrative duties, Gray taught regular courses in the Department of Education, organized an Annual Reading Conference from 1938-1952, and directed the University's semi-annual teacher education conferences from 1933 to 1950. His publications on reading and other topics in education were voluminous, and amounted to more than 400 books and articles by the time of his retirement in 1950. For the last ten years of his life, Gray was Director of Research in Reading and Professor Emeritus in the Department.