Stolz, Lois Meek

Dr. Lois Meek Stolz was born in Washington, DC, in 1891 and died Palo Alto, CA, in 1984. She received her A.B. from George Washington University in 1921 and her Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia University in 1925. In 1929 she returned to Columbia to help direct the newly created Child Development Institute. In 1938 she married Herbert Stolz and moved to California to work with him at his Institute of Child Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley.

At the outbreak of World War II, she was recruited by Edgar Kaiser for one of the homefront's most remarkable programs -- to develop child care centers for the children of working mothers at Kaiser Shipyards. Her first of its kind center in Portland, Oregon, was open 24 hours a day and served 25,000 women employees. It became the model for industry-based child care. After the war, she became Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, retiring in 1957. Her classes were among the favorites at Stanford and she always took a personal interest in all her students, acting as mentor and often forming lifelong professional friendships. She was a founding member of the Society for Research in Child Development, and her 1951 book Somatic Development of Adolescent Boys, co-authored with her husband, is still a classic in the field. Her research and teaching philosophy focused on parental education and involvement. Her book Your Child's Development and Guidance won the Parent's Magazine Medal in 1940.

Dr. Herbert Rowell Stolz was born in Wiamea, HA in 1886 and died in Palo Alto, CA in 1971. He entered Stanford University 1905, but his undergraduate education was interupted after meeting Jack London, who offered to sail for a year with him aboard London's famous boat, the Snark. Stolz returned to Stanford in 1907 and graduated with an A.B. He then attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar in 1910, where he studied medicine with the likes of Sir William Osler. While at Oxford, he participated in the 1913 Berlin Olympics as a broad jumper for the US. He completed his medical degree at Stanford in 1914.

After serving in France during World War I as Captain in the Army Medical Corps, Dr. Stolz began his professional career assisting the director of physical education for the state of California. From 1926-1934 he was Director, Institute of Child Welfare, University of California, Berkeley. He then moved to direct the guidance program for Oakland Public Schools until 1947. He became director of special schools and services with the California State Department of Education, where his work centered around overseeing programs at Californa schools for blind and deaf children, and for the cerebral palsied.He retired from this position in 1956.

Throughout his career, Dr. Stolz followed the influence of his mother, herself an M.D., and his Stanford professor Dr. Clark Hetherington in the study and promotion of human and child development. He specifically focused on the importance of physical education and individualized attention to a child's emotional and social development.

From the guide to the Lois Meek and Herbert Rowell Stolz Papers, 1917-1984, (History of Medicine Division. National Library of Medicine)