Lyman Albert Glenny

Background

Lyman Albert Glenny was born on the 26th of January, 1918 in Trent, South Dakota, United States. He was the son of Walter and Ann (Henning) Glenny. Lyman spent much of his youth in poverty. His father had left the family when he was young. His mother, he, and his two younger brothers moved from South Dakota to Nebraska, and then to Minnesota in search of work.

Education

Lyman Glenny went to various schools before graduating from Central Duluth High School (now Historic Central High School - Duluth). Then, he entered the state teachers' college in Duluth (now the University of Minnesota Duluth) with the anticipation of life as a school teacher. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science and English in 1947 under the G.I. Bill from the educational establishment. Besides, he studied at the University of Colorado, where he earned a Master of Arts degree in 1948. Two years later, he obtained a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Iowa State University.

Career

Before launching his academic career, Lyman Albert Glenny served in the United States Army Signal Corps from 1941 to 1946 as a cryptographer. Two years later, he joined the University of Iowa, where he was an instructor and taught in the political science department on a half-time basis. Between 1950 and 1962, he was a professor at Sacramento State College (now California State University in Sacramento).

Lyman Albert was employed as a coordinator of the United States Army Signal Corps Schools in Washington in 1951-1952, then as an assistant to McConnell on the Restudy Report in 1954-1955, and then worked at the Center for Studies in Higher Education in Berkeley. During the Korean War Lyman worked for the Pentagon.

In 1960 Glenny became director of a state-sponsored study of Nebraska's higher education system, before becoming associate director of the Illinois Board of Higher Education, where he served from 1962 to 1965. After that, he was executive director of the Illinois board for three years.

During this period, Lyman Glenny helped to complete the study on Nebraska's higher education system, and in 1964, A Master Plan for Higher Education in Illinois, in part based on an analytical approach similar to California's Restudy Report and its pioneering 1960 plan. Glenny clearly understood the need for statewide approaches to coordinating and planning higher education, and that states were different in their historical collection of institutions, and in their political culture. He sought a balance between the need for public accountability by higher education institutions and systems, and a sufficient level of autonomy to manage their affairs and to avoid political intrusion.

Glenny's professional experience with both Nebraska and Illinois and his productivity as a scholar and observer of state systems brought an offer for him to return to the University of California in Berkeley as a professor of higher education, the post he held from 1969 to 1983. Moreover, he was director of that institution's Center for the Study of Higher Education from 1969 to 1976. While at the center, Glenny wrote important studies on various aspects of college administration, covering such topics as budgeting, financial aid, and academic excellence. In 1983, he became professor emeritus at Berkeley.

During this period, Glenny co-authored with Leland Medsker, Ernest Palola, and James Paltridge A Survey of Research and Perspectives on National Planning for Higher Education: A Report to the Academy for Educational Development that came out in 1969, and a number of articles on higher education planning, state coordination of financial aid, coordination of doctoral programs, and quality in higher education. Expanding on the work of M. M. Chambers, Glenny published, with co-author Thomas K. Dalglish, Public Universities, State Agencies, and the Law: Constitutional Autonomy in Decline in 1973. Other important works included Trends in State Funding for Higher Education that was written in 1973, Presidents Confront Reality: From Edifice Complex to University Without Walls, published in 1975, and a large number of center-affiliated publications on state budgeting.

Achievements

• Lyman Albert Glenny was a productive scholar, both completing works on California's higher education system and expanding his interests in international systems. He was listed as a noteworthy education teacher by Marquis Who's Who.
  
  Lyman developed with Frank Bowen a set of stress indicators that resulted in a number of studies published by the California Postsecondary Education Commission.
  
  Lyman Albert's work on the Restudy Report and his subsequent research on state higher education systems made him a noted expert. By late 1959, he had completed his comparative study on state coordination. That year he gave testimony and advice to the renewed effort at statewide planning of California's system that led to A Master Plan for Higher Education in California, 1960-1975. Also, he was an engaging and learned figure who influenced a generation of doctoral students at Berkeley and helped build Berkeley's higher education center into a premier research unit.

Works

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  • Public Universities, State Agencies, and the Law: Constitutional Autonomy in Decline 1973
  • Presidents Confront Reality: From Edifice Complex to University Without Walls 1975
  • Autonomy of Public Colleges: the Challenge of Coordination 1959
  • State Budgeting for Higher Education: Interagency Conflict and Consensus 1976

Personality

Glenny was a keen observer and had an indomitable spirit.

Quotes from others about the person

• "There is no question in my mind but that Glenny is Mr. Higher Education-Budgeting within the United States. When I discuss the School of Education and who the stars are within it, usually the first name that comes out is Glenny." - George Maslach

Connections

Lyman Albert Glenny was married twice. His first marriage was to Carolyn Joy Ballou but they divorced later. Together they had three children, Terence Alan, Celia Joy, and Colleen Marie. His second marriage was to Helen S. Thompson.

Father:

Walter Glenny

Mother:

Ann (Henning) Glenny

ex-wife:

Carolyn Joy Ballou

late wife:

Helen S. Thompson

Son:

Terence Alan Glenny

Daughter:

Celia Joy Glenny

Daughter:

Colleen Marie Glenny