Edwin D. Pusey

1941-1944

Edwin Davis Pusey became acting Dean of the College of Education in September 1941. It appears no action was ever taken to designate him permanent Dean.

A native of Maryland, Pusey did not attend elementary school. He had private instruction from a tutor and his mother who was a missionary. He earned a B.A. and an M.A. and an LL.D. from St. John’s College in Maryland. In 1934, he took his second M.A. from Columbia University. He was especially proud of having been a captain in the infantry of the U.S. Army during the Spanish-American War.

For a number of years, Pusey taught Latin and Geography in public schools in North Carolina and at the University of North Carolina and Winthrop College in South Carolina. He taught the summer session at the University of Georgia in 1924 and became a professor of education at UGA in 1925.

Pusey was a kind and considerate gentleman who quietly but effectively began to restore a sense of order to the College after its turmoil and with the nation begin at war.

Shortly after the U.S. declared war in 1941, the University stated its intention to aid in the war effort. The U.S. Navy selected the university as the location for one of its five Pre-Flight Schools.The College of Education’s new Practice School Building (now known as Baldwin Hall) was one of the buildings the Navy wanted.

With many of the state’s and nation’s young men away at war, the university had a painful shortage of students. Teachers and prospective teachers, most of whom were women, came to the university in greater and greater numbers. By the end of 1944, this emphasis on teacher education which attracted so many women, coupled with the fact that so many young men were away at war, resulted in the university’s student population being 75 percent women.

Two areas that had severe shortages of teachers were art and music. Dean Pusey, Hugh Hodgson, head of the Music Department, and Lamar Dodd, head of the Art Department, worked out the curricula for a College of Education B.S. degree with majors in Music and Art. These two programs, the first B.S. degrees in art and music offered in Georgia, became available in September 1943.

Another new program was created in the area of Vocational Education. The Georgia Legislature voted to fund programs in industrial arts, trade and industries and distributive education in 10 area schools in preparation for the industrial growth in Georgia that they hoped would take place after the war. The Demonstration School of the College of Education was one of the 10 schools selected.
Two instructors from the State Department were to teach most of the courses while John Wheeler of the College of Education offered a course in the philosophy of Vocational Education. Another far-reaching development in Vocational Education came in May 1944 when O.C. Aderhold, professor of Vocational Education, was appointed director of the Educational Panel of the State Agricultural and Industrial Development Board.

In the summer of 1944, about 75 school leaders from 10 counties came to Peabody Hall to study state educational programs and plan local and county level programs. They were to go back and work with principals, teachers and other community leaders to enhance agricultural and industrial development in the area and eventually all parts of the state.

In the fall of 1944, the Edwin D. Pusey, retired as Emeritus Professor of Education. But he continued some work in the field, particularly in the area of institutes and conferences. He died in 1953 at the age of 80.