McClusky, Howard Y. (Howard Yale), 1900-1982.

Professor of community and adult education at the University of Michigan.

From the description of Howard Y. McClusky papers, 1921-1982. (University of Michigan). WorldCat record id: 34418672

Howard Yale McClusky was one of America's foremost educators, known especially for his work in adult education as it applied to the organization and activities of small communities. McClusky was born on February 20, 1900, in Whitesboro, New York. He attended Blackburn Academy and in 1921 graduated from Park College in Missouri. McClusky received a doctorate in educational psychology from the University of Chicago in 1929.

Five years before completing his Ph.D., McClusky accepted a teaching position at the University of Michigan. Between becoming an instructor in 1924 and his retirement in 1970, he established and chaired the University's Department of Community and Adult Education (1948-1970) and received the Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award (1958). After his retirement, McClusky continued to teach for another 12 years as a professor emeritus.

Although McClusky was strongly identified with teaching and advising graduate students at the University of Michigan, his professional activities were not limited to the university. In 1940 he was appointed associate director of the American Youth Commission (a unit of the American Council on Education). When the Commission was eliminated in 1942, McClusky was made a section chief of the Civilian Mobilization Branch of the Office of Civilian Defense.

He founded and was the first president of the Adult Education Association (AEA) in 1951. Six years later he helped to organize the Commission of Professors of Adult Education, the AEA's most prolific subunit. McClusky co-chaired the Section on Aging for the 1971 White House Conference on Aging.

Interspersed with his other activities, McClusky taught as a visiting professor at more than 10 universities and served as consultant to many civic organizations and governmental panels. A prolific writer, he published well over 100 articles and books. More impressive, perhaps, he delivered over 430 speeches during his life.

McClusky viewed his own career as one of "bridge building" between adult education and the disciplines of educational psychology, adult psychology, sociology, and gerontology. His was also a career wedded to the concept of "community development"; he felt that "the curriculum of adult education consists most effectively in the problems of the community [and] in the activities of the community." He launched the statewide drive to organize community councils in the 1930s. These councils consisted of concerned citizens interested in cohesively addressing their communities' needs and goals through public participation. Under the aegis of the Department of Community and Adult Education, the councils met together in annual conferences to share ideas and learn new techniques of citizen involvement.

Just as important as McClusky's interdisciplinary approach to education and his insistence on putting education to work in and for communities and regions, was the "life span dimension" of his thinking and work. He initially taught courses on the mental hygiene of childhood and adolescence, then served on the American Youth Commission where he focused on the problem of older rural youth, went on to found a department of adult education, and moved gradually to become a pioneer in the field of educational gerontology. He thus was uniquely qualified to discuss the psychology and sociology of learning, having studied learning throughout the human lifespan. And he spoke with authority about the capacity and necessity for "lifelong learning.''

McClusky himself continued to learn, work, and teach until the end of his life. Already seriously ill, he taught his last class on April 13, 1982 (H652: Current Issues in Educational Gerontology). He died on August 15, 1982.

From the guide to the Howard Y. McClusky Papers, 1921-1982, (Bentley Historical Library University of Michigan)