Cyrus DeWitt Mead, Education: Berkeley, a friend of Vernon Eugene Martin, Cyrus DeWitt Mead attended the wedding of Vernon Eugene Martin and Mary Louise Hamilton and had the couple at his home after the wedding on Saturday, 25 April 1942, at the Mead home in Gragmont. The Cragmont area of Berkeley is a residential district located in the northeastern section of the city, occupying most of the hill area north of Codornices Creek. It lies at an elevation of 755 feet (230 m).
The marriage of Vernon Eugene Martin, son of David Radford Martin and Nannette Serena Walters, and the daughter of Aciel Augustus Hamilton and Edith Fern Kester, on Saturday, April 25, 1942 at the Little Chapel of Flowers, 3049 Adeline Street, City of Berkeley, Alameda County, State of California
1875-1943
Associate Professor
Cyrus DeWitt Mead was born in Spencer, Indiana, November 4, 1875, the son of William Stanley and Amma Rebecca Mead. His ancestors came from England in the middle of the eighteenth century, gradually moving westward to Kentucky and Indiana. He received his elementary and secondary education in Spencer, Indiana. From 1894 to 1898 he attended DePauw University, receiving the degree of Ph.B. He was a Graduate Fellow in Teachers College, Columbia University, from 1910 to 1912, and at the end of that period received the degree of M.A. Continuing his graduate studies at intervals in Columbia University, he was granted the degree of Ph.D. in 1914.
While he was a Graduate Fellow--in 1911--he married Helen Howe Hutchinson of Spencer, Indiana.
Shortly after graduation from DePauw University, he entered upon his lifelong profession, education. From 1899 to 1904 he served as teacher and principal in various Indiana rural and city elementary and secondary schools. When his native State decided to modernize its policy toward the institutionalized feeble-minded, it appointed him Principal of the Indiana State School for Feeble-minded Youth. From 1904 to 1910 he exerted leadership over this institution. In reorganizing the institution and its program he substituted professional vision and scientific method for custodial attitudes and procedures in dealing with the inmates.
Following the receipt of his M.A. degree, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Elementary Education in the University of Cincinnati and Critic Supervisor in the Cincinnati Public Schools. He served there six years, training teachers in service, directing graduate students
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in research, and carrying on and publishing his own studies. He also taught in the 1916 and 1917 summer sessions of Teachers College, Columbia University.
In 1918, Dr. Mead became Associate Professor of Education in the University of California, being assigned to the newly created chair of Elementary Education. Under this assignment he offered the first graduate seminar at the University devoted entirely to research in elementary education. He also introduced intensive instruction in educational tests and measurements. His services to the University and to the State were also marked by his introduction of educational surveys dealing with the measurement of achievement in elementary school subjects. In this pioneering work he directed many educational surveys in various California cities and counties. Through his teaching in the University he contributed to the training of prospective teachers for elementary and junior high schools, furnished advanced training to experienced teachers, and directed the research of many graduate students specializing in elementary education. All his students considered him an inspiring teacher, a wise counselor, and a beloved friend.
Professor Mead lectured in the summer sessions of Brigham Young University in 1923, and of the University of Illinois in 1931.
In the course of his long professional career he contributed many articles to educational periodicals, produced several educational monographs, and was the senior author of The Transitional Public School. The great variety of titles and subjects of his published studies attests to the breadth of his interests. This breadth is revealed also in the numerous researches of his graduate students.
He was a member of the National Education Association, National Society for the Study of Education, National Society of College Teachers of Education, National Association of Supervisors and Directors of Education, Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Delta Kappa, and Kappa Delta Pi.
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As a personality, Professor Mead will be fondly remembered for his great love of children, his lively interest in new acquaintances, his deep appreciation of trees, and his zest for the lore of our pioneer days.
Professor Mead died in Berkeley, California, on September 27, 1943, in his twenty-sixth year of valuable service to the University. At the time of his death he was still engaged in research and writing. Surviving him are his widow, Helen Howe Hutchinson Mead, and their daughter, Martha Jane Mead.
Academic Senate Committee George C. Kyte W.W. Kemp Edward Z. Rowell