GLEAZER, Edmund John "Ed" Jr.
GLEAZER, GILBERT, ALLEN, CHEVILLE, HIGDON
Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 1/14/2016 at 10:09:31
Biography ~ Edmund John "Ed" Gleazer, Jr.
March 23, 1871 ~ May 05, 1963Edmund J. "Ed" Gleazer, Jr. was born on August 24, 1916, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Ed served as the president of Graceland from 1946 to 1957, a period of growth marked by efforts that led to the return of four-year programs at the college. He was the college's seventh official president, succeeding Acting President Alva R. "Willie" Gilbert.
Following a blind date with Charlene Alberta Allen on Christmas Eve of 1938, Charlene moved to Philadelphia to be closer to Ed. She worked as a model at Strawbridges and Clothier. Ed nicknamed her "Chuckie" and the name stuck. They were married on April 14, 1940, in Kansas City, Missouri. They resided in Philadelphia until moving to Lamoni, Iowa.
Edmund J. Gleazer, Jr. was asked to assume leadership of Graceland in April of 1946.
A native of Philadelphia, he had attended Graceland from 1934 to 1936, and then had gone on to complete his B.A. in rural sociology and economics at the UCLA in 1938; and his M.Ed. in sociology at Temple University (1943). He took over as President at the beginning of another of the college's periods of crisis and growth - periods that any institution must survive. Chuckie worked in the administration office.
The end of World War II brought hundreds of young but maturing veterans to the campuses across the nation. With this influx of new students came greater demands and new problems. The veterans were a different breed of student, forerunners of the current generation, demanding, expecting and questioning. New facilities were needed if these returning young men were to find educational opportunities at Graceland.
Early in 1948 the board supported President Gleazer's recommendation that a ground plan be established for the expansion of dormitory facilities on campus. President Gleazer addressed several hundred people who gathered for the groundbreaking ceremonies of the Memorial Student Center, which were held in connection with the 1948 Homecoming on October 24th.
In February of 1951, President Gleazer announced to the faculty and Board of Trustees that he would take a leave of absence to continue his graduate work at Harvard University. Dr. Roy A. Cheville, then serving as dean of faculty, assumed President Gleazer's responsibilities during his absence. President Gleazer obtained his Ph.D. in education in 1953.
President and Charlene Gleazer were in Oslo, Norway, on a tour of Europe when they received a cablegram which invited Gleazer to take a 1-year leave of absence from his post at Graceland College to head up a national information program for the American Association of Junior Colleges (AAJC). Not sure how he would explain to the board that after 3 months spent aboard he was asking for another year's absence, President Gleazer wasn't too worried because Graceland was at the forefront of support for the fledgling national association. Plus Graceland was the first junior college accredited in Iowa and one of the first church-related colleges to transform from a 4-year college to a junior college.
President Gleazer did ask for a leave in 1956 to accept the directorate of the newly developing AAJC. Earl Terril Higdon, then chairman of the Board of Trustees, took over as president in Gleazer's absence.
Gleazer's new position was with public relations with an office located in Washington, D.C. Upon realizing that his role with the American Association of Junior Colleges would consume several years, Gleazer resigned as Graceland's president in September of 1957. He accepted the position of executive director of the AAJC, a position of which he held until 1981.
As Graceland's president, Gleazer helped revise the college's salary policies which had been previously established by the RLDS bishop's office based on wants and needs so that wages became set by the college administration and Board of Trustees based on an employee's qualification. President Gleazer oversaw the physical expansion on campus with the additions of the Memorial Student Center, Gunsolley Men's Residence Hall, Platz-Mortimore Science Hall, and the second Patroness Women's Residence Hall.
With his responsibilities as executive director of the AAJC, Gleazer developed a reputation as a leading national spokesman for community-based education and was involved in several international conferences on adult education. He authored three books: This Is the Community College (1968), Project Focus: A Forecast Study of Community Colleges (1973), and The Community College: Values, Vision and Vitality (1980). Gleazer taught courses on community colleges at George Washington University from 1981 to 1984, then became a visiting professor in the community college leadership program at the University of Texas until 2010.
The Gleazers moved to Bethesda, Maryland in 1958, their home for the next 55 years. The Gleazers became avid sailors, venturing from the Chesapeake Bay as far south as the Exumas and north to Cape Cod. They spent their summers at their cottage in Onset, Massachusetts, at the entrance to Cape Cod. They were active in church work and were frequent volunteers for their community.
The Gleazers sold their Bethesda home in 2012 and moved to a condo at The Carlisle in San Francisco to be closer to their children residing in California and Colorado. The Gleazers celebrated their 75th anniversary in April of 2015.
Chuckie died at the age of 95 on May 21, 2015, at San Francisco.
The Gleazers were parents of four children.
Prior to coming to Lamoni, Gleazer served for two years in Philadelphia with the RLDS Church. He accepted a full-time appointment as Lamoni Stake president from 1943 to 1946.
Gleazer was a co-recipient of the first Graceland College Distinguished Service Award in 1965, and obtained an honorary doctor of humane letters from Graceland in 1987. He has also received the B. Lamar Johnson Leadership Award, League for Innovation in the Community College; AACC Leadership Award; Lifetime Achievement Award, Institute of Higher Education, University of Florida; and, Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to Higher Education Award, American Council on Education.
Gleazer and his wife established the Gleazer Peace Grant and the Charles Allen Memorial Day of Peace at Graceland.
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Graceland University's School of Education is named for Edmund J. Gleazer Jr., Graceland's seventh president (1946-57) and a man considered by many to be the Father of the American Community College.
This 1936 Graceland graduate became the university's youngest president, but it was in 1957 that Ed (as he likes to be called) found his true calling. He became Executive Director of the American Association of Junior Colleges and during the next 25 years he shepherded the phenomenal growth of community-based education in the United States. Ed's vision of the intrinsic value of every human life fueled his desire to make the pursuit of higher education available to all who sought it.
Ed's mantra is "Peace through life-long learning." Driven by this principle, he began a second career, with his wife Charlene (Allen) Gleazer, a 1938 Graceland graduate, when he retired at age 65. They have traveled the world from Baghdad to Bangkok, from Moscow to Zimbabwe, advocating for community-based education - education tailored to a community's specific needs. That might be literature or literacy, advanced Chemistry or the basics of health and sanitation. Now in his early nineties, Ed is still one of higher education's greatest champions. He has been a prolific writer on the subject and many of his articles and papers are available to read online at the University of Texas at Austin's Community College Leadership Program (CCLP) staff development Web site.
The School of Education is very proud to be identified with this outstanding educator.
SOURCES:
graceland.edu/education/edmund-j-gleazer-jr.cfm Edwards, Paul M. "The Hilltop Where . . . An Informal History of Graceland College." Pp. 96-97, 100-03. Venture Foundation. Lamoni IA. 1972.
Goehner, David. “The Graceland College Book of Knowledge: From A To Z.” p. 408. Herald House. Independence MO. 1997.
Luskin, Bernard J, ed. "Legacy of Leadership: Profiles of the Presidents of the American Association of Community Colleges. 1958 - 2010." Pp. 8-9, 14. W.K. Kellogg Foundation. American Association of Community Colleges. Washington, D.C. 2011.
Charlene Alberta "Chuckie" (Allen) Gleazer obituary
graceland.edu/education/edmund-j-gleazer-jr.cfm
Transcriptions by Sharon R. Becker, January of 2016
Decatur Biographies maintained by Constance McDaniel Hall.
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