Mayo, Leonard

Leonard W. Mayo was a leading educator and administrator in the field of welfare and community health concerns for more than fifty years. Mayo's career blended teaching and agency administrative positions. He also held numerous offices in social service organizations, including: the Child Welfare League of America, National Conference of Social Work, and the International Union for Child Welfare.

Leonard W. Mayo was born in 1899 in Canaan, New York, to William Withington and Myra Merrick Dooly Mayo. He graduated from Colby College, Waterville, Maine, in 1922 with an A.B. degree, and received an honorary Doctor of Social Sciences degree in 1942. From 1930 to 1935, he did graduate work in sociology and social work at New York University and the New York School of Social Work, Columbia University. He married Lena Cooley in 1924.

During the first phase of Mayo's career (1922-1930), he was a teacher and administrator in three children's agencies: the Opportunity Farm for Boys, New Glouchester, Maine; the Maryland Training School for Boys; and Children's Village, Dobbs Ferry, New York. For five years (1930-1935), Mayo was a graduate student and instructor at the New York School of Social Work, with a leave for service at the Emergency Relief Bureau of New York City. From 1935 to 1941, he was assistant, then associate, director of the Welfare Council of New York, with a leave for service with the Committee on the Care of European Children.

Mayo spent 1941 to1949 at Western Reserve University, where he served first as dean of the School of Applied Social Sciences and, then, as vice president of the University. While in Cleveland, he also served as assistant director of Civilian Defense in Cuyahoga County and as chairman of the Metropolitan Council of Greater Cleveland. In 1949, Mayo moved to New York City to become director of the Association for the Aid of Crippled Children (now, the Foundation for Child Development). He held that position until 1965. After a year of free-lance consulting, he joined the faculty of Colby College, Maine, as Professor of Human Development and remained there until 1971. He spent several years in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, before returning to the Cleveland area in 1976 where, in retirement, he served as visiting professor and development officer for the School of Applied Social Sciences.

Mayo held numerous elected and appointed offices. Among the most significant were: president of the Child Welfare League of America (1935-1945); president of the National Conference of Social Work (1948); chairman of the executive committee of the Mid-Century White House Conference on Children and Youth (1949-1951); chairman of the Social Welfare Division of the National Council of Churches (1952-1960); member of the mission to Korea, American Korean Foundation (1953); president of the International Union for Child Welfare (1957-1973); and member of the President's Committee on Mental Retardation (1961-1962 and 1963-1967). He accepted appointments to various committees, commissions, and study teams by five U.S. presidents between 1944 and 1961.

From the guide to the Leonard Mayo papers, 1926-1988, (University of Minnesota Libraries. Social Welfare History Archives [swha])