Melby, Ernest Oscar, 1891-1987

Ernest Oscar Melby was born August 16, 1891, in Lake Park, Minnesota, the son of Ole Hanson and Ellen Stakke Melby. He joined the faculty of Northwestern University in 1928, becoming Dean of the School of Education in 1934. Melby left NU for the Montana State University in 1941, subsequently holding administrative posts at the University of Montana and New York University before joining the faculty of Michigan State University. Melby died in 1987.

Melby received his B.A. from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota in 1913, taught high school briefly, and married Aurora Herbert on December 29, 1914. They had one child, Stanley Herbert Melby. Over the next decade, Melby was superintendent of schools in Brewster, Blackduck, and Long Prairie, Minnesota. While attending graduate school at the University of Minnesota, where he received an M.A. in 1926 and a Ph.D. in 1928, Melby worked as a research assistant for the public schools of Minneapolis and was the assistant director of the Bureau of Educational Research at the University. Appointed Assistant Professor of Education at Northwestern University in 1928, Melby conducted research on the administration of several Illinois school districts, the results of which were published in 1929 and 1930 and undoubtedly contributed to his rapid promotion to Associate Professor in 1929 and full Professor in 1930.

...