Benjamin DeKalbe Wood (November 10, 1894 – July 6, 1986) was an American
educator
A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching.
''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...
,
research
Research is "creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness ...
er, and director /
professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professo ...
at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
and an expert in the educational field.
Early life
Wood was born in
Brownsville, Texas
Brownsville () is a city in Cameron County in the U.S. state of Texas. It is on the western Gulf Coast in South Texas, adjacent to the border with Matamoros, Mexico. The city covers , and has a population of 186,738 as of the 2020 census. I ...
, on November 10, 1894. He attended the
Brownsville area schools,
Mission High School Mission High School may refer to:
* Mission High School (San Francisco, California), a public high school in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) San Francisco, California
* Mission High School (Mission, Texas), a secondary school loc ...
, and the
University of Texas
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
.
Later life and death
Woods retired in 1960
but remained active. In 1969, he was given the Teachers College Medal for Distinguished Service.
Union College
Union College is a private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the state of New York, after Columbia Co ...
in New York, from Lawrence College
Lawrence University is a private liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Appleton, Wisconsin. Founded in 1847, its first classes were held on November 12, 1849. Lawrence was the second college in the U.S. to be founded as a coeducation ...
in Wisconsin, and from Colorado State Teachers College.[ Wood died at the age of 91 of a ]heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...
on July 8, 1986.
Legacy
Wood established the Elbenwood Fund for Education Research, the Ben D. Wood Fellowship Economic Fund and the Institute for Learning Technologies Fund.[
]
Committees and societies
Wood was a Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...
and a member of the New York Academy of Sciences
The New York Academy of Sciences (originally the Lyceum of Natural History) was founded in January 1817 as the Lyceum of Natural History. It is the fourth oldest scientific society in the United States. An independent, nonprofit organization wi ...
, the American Psychological Association
The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It ha ...
, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...
.[
In academics, he was a curator of ]Stephens College
Stephens College is a private women's college in Columbia, Missouri. It is the second-oldest women's educational establishment that is still a women's college in the United States. It was founded on August 24, 1833, as the Columbia Female Acad ...
, and the chair or director of 20 national education committees.[ He was a director of Eastman's teaching film experiment, the ]American Council of Education
The American Council on Education (ACE) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) U.S. higher education association established in 1918. ACE's members are the leaders of approximately 1,700 accredited, degree-granting colleges and universities and higher educati ...
test service, and the Commonwealth Fund
The Commonwealth Fund is a private U.S. foundation whose stated purpose is to "promote a high-performing health care system that achieves better access, improved quality, and greater efficiency, particularly for society's most vulnerable, includ ...
for research on measurement of achievement in college courses.[
Wood served on the New York state board of regents' examining board, and on committees for the American Institute of Accountants.][
]
Works
Books published by Wood are:
* ''The Measurement of College Work'' (1921)
* ''The Measurement of Law School Work'' (1924)
* ''Columbia Research Bureau American History Test'' (1926)
* ''Motion Pictures in the Classroom'' (1929)
* ''Study of the Relations of Secondary and Higher Education in Pennsylvania'' (1938)
* ''Our Air-age World: A Textbook in Global Geography'' (1945)
* ''Geography of the World'' (1959)
References
Sources
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Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, Benjamin D.
1894 births
1986 deaths
20th-century American psychologists
Educational psychologists
Ethologists
American eugenicists
Teachers College, Columbia University alumni
Columbia University faculty
Teachers College, Columbia University faculty
People from Brownsville, Texas
University of Texas alumni
20th-century American zoologists