Asa Dearborn Lord was an American educator. He served as a head of the Ohio Institution for the Education of the Blind from 1855 to 1875.
Background
Asa Dearborn Lord was born on June 17, 1816 at Madrid, New York, United States. His father, Asa Lord, died when the boy was two years old. His mother, Lucretia (Dearborn) Lord, was a woman of marked intelligence and an experienced teacher.
Education
Lord's early education was directed by his mother. Later he attended the district school and the academy at Potsdam, New York. In 1838 he entered the sophomore class of Western Reserve College. He also attended lectures in the medical department of the neighboring Willoughby University. Though he obtained a diploma in 1846, he never entered upon regular practice. Already qualified as a physician, he took up the study of theology and, in 1863, was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Franklin.
Career
Lord became a teacher at the age of seventeen. In 1837 he taught a private school at Willoughby, Ohio. In 1839 he was chosen as head of the Western Reserve Teachers' Seminary in the neighboring village of Kirtland, a position which he held for eight years.
In 1845 he gave instruction in what is usually considered the first teachers' institute held in Ohio, though he had, in 1843, organized and conducted a similar institution at Kirtland. During 1846 he began the publication of the Ohio School Journal, which he continued to publish until 1849, when it was combined with The School Friend.
In 1847 he was appointed superintendent of schools at Columbus, Ohio, an office created largely through the influence of Henry Barnard and the first of its kind in the Middle West. In the process of classifying the pupils he was led to organize the first public high school in Columbus and one of the first in the state. While continuing to publish The Ohio School Journal, he also published The Public School Advocate, primarily in the interest of good understanding between the school board and the patrons of the public schools. Convinced, as was Barnard, of the importance of the interchange of ideas among teachers, he promoted the organization of the Ohio State Teachers' Association in 1847. When, in 1852, the association established, as its organ, The Ohio Journal of Education that became, in 1860, The Ohio Educational Monthly, he was elected its resident editor and served until 1855. In 1854 he resigned, temporarily, his superintendency in order to act as agent of the association. He resumed his work as superintendent in 1855, but the following year, became head of the Ohio Institution for the Education of the Blind. In this field of educational activity, to which he devoted the remainder of his life, he paid especial attention to training in the practical arts. In 1868 he was called to be head of the new state school for the blind at Batavia, New York, where he died.
Achievements
Connections
On July 21, 1842, Lord married Elizabeth W. Russell, who, herself, had a remarkable career, first, in helping her husband in his work for the blind and, after his death, as superintendent at Batavia, in his place, and as assistant dean at Oberlin College.