Cubberley, Ellwood Patterson, 1868-1941

Ellwood Patterson Cubberley, professor and Dean of the Stanford School of Education (1898-1933; emeritus, 1933-1940), was born in Indiana. He received an A.B. from Indiana University and an M.A. and PhD. from Columbia University. He served as president of Vincennes University in Indiana and superintendent of San Diego City Schools before accepting an offer from Stanford. Cubberley wrote and edited many books, most notably the Riverside textbooks of Education.

BIOGRAPHY

Ellwood Patterson Cubberley was born in Andrews, Indiana June 8, 1868. In 1891 Cubberley received an A.B. from Indiana University, where he met David Starr Jordan, who was president of the university. Cubberley received an M.A. in 1902 and a Ph.D. in 1905, both from Columbia University. On June 15, 1892 Cubberley and Helen Van Uxem, a student he had met at the University of Indiana, were married.

Between 1891 and 1893 Cubberley served as an instructor in physical sciences at Vincennes University in Indiana. He then became president of Vincennes and served from 1893 to 1896. While President, Cubberley brought the university out of debt and established it as an accredited junior college.

From Vincennes Cubberley went to California as the superintendent of the San Diego City Schools. Two years later he accepted an offer from David Starr Jordan, who had become the first president of Stanford University, for the position of assistant professor of education. He became full professor in 1906 and became the dean of the School of Education when it was established in 1917. He served as dean until his retirement in 1933. Cubberley is credited with strengthening the department and building it into an influential School of Education.

Throughout his career Cubberley also did much work lecturing and writing, and served as the head of many school district surveys. Cubberley wrote and edited many books, most notably the Riverside Textbooks in Education.

In 1934, with money they had saved and invested throughout the years, the Cubberleys created a trust fund which was used for the building of the new School of Education. It was completed in 1938.

Cubberley died on September 14, 1941. Helen Cubberley died on January 25, 1952. The Cubberleys did not have children.