EGP was born to Bert and Edna (Jackson) Wiltshire on June 15, 1915, in Lansing, Ohio, and grew up in Pennsylvania. In 1937 she received her A.B. from Wilson College, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and in 1939 her A. M. in English from Yale University. There she worked as research assistant to Dr. Erwin Ramsdell Goodenough (1893-1965), professor of the history of religion. He divorced his wife to marry EGP in 1941, and they had two children, Ursula and Daniel. Before their marriage, EGP had taught at several private schools, including the Gateway School in New Haven. EGP became interested in child development and earned a Ph.D. in Education and Psychology from Yale in 1956. From 1951 to 1959 she taught and studied pre-school children at the Gesell Institute of Child Development in New Haven, then moved to Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, to direct the Eliot-Pearson School of Child Development. When the school became a Tufts department, she became its chair and a professor. In 1962 she divorced ERG to marry Robert Pitcher, whose wife Lucile had been a trustee of the Eliot-Pearson School. EGP became professor emeritus at Tufts in 1980; she was awarded an honorary LL.D. by New England College in 1963 and a D.Litt. by Wilson College in 1991. Her publications include five books and numerous articles on child development.
From the guide to the Papers, 1927-1984, (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)
