Luther Halsey Gulick

Background

Gulick was born on May 4, 1865, in Honolulu, Hawaii, the fifth of the seven children of Luther Halsey Gulick and Louisa Lewis, missionaries.

Education

Gulick entered the preparatory department of Oberlin College in 1880, but illness caused him to leave and in 1885 he became a student in the Sargent School of Physical Training, Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1886 he entered the Medical College of the University of the City of New York and three years later received the degree of M. D.

Career

Handicapped by heart trouble and severe headaches, Gulick became intensely interested in physical education and hygiene. He organized the physical training course in the Y. M. C. A. Training School, Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1886, and continued as director until 1903. While engaged in this work he originated the triangle as the emblem of the Y. M. C. A. , denoting the physical, social, and spiritual aims of the organization. It was there also that he devised, in collaboration with one of his students, James Naismith, the game of basketball. From 1887 to 1903 he also filled the position of secretary for the physical training department of the Y. M. C. A. International Committee. From 1900 to 1903 he was principal of the Pratt Institute High School, Brooklyn, New York, and for the next three years he served as director of physical training in the public schools of New York City. His two outstanding contributions to the New York public schools were the reorganization and coordination of physical education activities and instruction in hygiene, and the organization of the Public Schools Athletic League. In 1907 he organized the child hygiene department of the Russell Sage Foundation and served as director until 1913 when failing health compelled him to resign. After a few months of rest, though his health was but slightly improved, he cooperated with his wife in organizing the Camp Fire Girls movement, serving as president of the group for one year. The last five years of his life were devoted to writing and lecturing on physical education, hygiene, and dancing. He was a popular and stimulating writer and speaker and was always seeking new and better ways of educating the masses in matters of physical education, play, and hygiene. Gulick filled many offices in organizations devoted to the subjects in which he was interested. Besides filling many important offices in national organizations, he edited Physical Education, 1891-1896; Association Outlook, 1897-1900; and the American Physical Education Review, 1901-1903. His published works include the Gulick Hygiene Series; Physical Measurements and How They Are Used (1889); Physical Education by Muscular Exercise (1904); The Efficient Life (1907); Mind and Work (1908); The Healthful Art of Dancing (1910); and Medical Inspection of Schools (1907), in collaboration with Leonard P. Ayres. Although much weakened by long illness and pain, he accepted a call from the National War Council in the fall of 1917 to go to France to make a survey of the rapidly growing work of the Y. M. C. A. with the American Expeditionary Forces. He spent two months in France and on his return made a report on the kind of men needed and the training they should receive. This report and the help he gave in carrying out its recommendations greatly enhanced the service rendered by the Y. M. C. A. in France. He was so deeply stirred by what he saw in France that on the return trip he began the manuscript of his best book, The Dynamic of Manhood (1917). Unable to rally from the fatigue and overstrain of this trip, he retired to his camp in the Maine woods where he died a few months later, on August 13, 1918.

Achievements

• Gulick is best remembered as a founder and president of the Camp Fire Girls.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Medical inspection of school

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • Physical education by muscular exercise

    (Physical education by muscular exercise (90 pages))

  • The healthful art of dancing

    (The healthful art of dancing. 358 Pages.)

  • book

  • Mind and Work

Membership

Gulick was chairman of the Physical Training Lecture Committee of the St. Louis Exposition, 1904; member of the American Olympic Games Committee, Athens, 1906, and London, 1908; delegate to the Second International Congress on School Hygiene, London, 1907; lecturer on hygiene, New York University, 1906-1909; consultant, New York Hospital for Deformities and Joint Diseases, 1907; secretary, American Association for the Advancement of Physical Education, 1892-1893; president, American Physical Education Association, 1903-1906; organizing secretary, American School Hygiene Association, 1907; president, Public Schools Physical Training Society, 1905-1908; and president, Playground Association of America, 1906-1909.

Personality

Gulick was impulsive, independent, firm in his convictions, and always ready to defend them regardless of consequences. Born of missionary parents and engaged for many years in religious work, he was impulsive, independent, firm in his convictions, and always ready to defend them regardless of consequences. Gulick was fervent in his religious beliefs, but he was liberal in his views and aroused much antagonism and criticism among the fundamentalists in the organization. He was blunt and forceful in the expression of his feelings, particularly when he felt that his opponents were insincere or were placing self-interest above principles.

Connections

On August 30, 1887, Gulick married Charlotte Vetter of Hanover, New Hampshire.

Father:

Luther Halsey Gulick

Mother:

Louisa Lewis

Spouse:

Charlotte Vetter

References

• Pioneers of modern physical training