SPAULDING, FRANK ELLSWORTH (30 Nov. 1866-6 June 1960), an educator of national stature, left an indelible imprint on the CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS despite a relatively brief tenure as superintendent. The son of William and Abby Stearns Spaulding, he was a native of Dublin, N.H. After receiving his bachelor's degree from Amherst College and advanced degrees from the Univ. of Leipzig, Dr. Spaulding married Mary Elizabeth Trow of Massachusetts in 1895. He served successively as superintendent of public school systems in Ware, Mass., Passaic, N.J., Newton, Mass., and Minneapolis, Minn., before being lured to Cleveland in 1917 by a then nationally unprecedented salary of $12,000.
With a mandate to implement recommendations of the CLEVELAND FOUNDATION's public school survey, he combined both educational and business functions of the system under his control. Other reforms included the institution of junior high and vocational programs (see EDUCATION). With the coming of WORLD WAR I, he presided over the schools' AMERICANIZATION program until obtaining a leave of absence to head the Army Education Commission in France.
He never returned to Cleveland, resigning his position in 1920 to organize and chair the education dept. of the Yale Graduate School. He retired in 1935 as Professor Emeritus, having also lectured at Harvard and served on numerous boards and commissions. One of the many books and readers to his credit was The Individual Child and His Education (1904).
He died in La Jolla, Cal., survived by 2 unmarried daughters, Mary and Catherine, and a son, William E., president of Houghton Mifflin publishers. Another son, the late Dr. Francis T., had been dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.