George Frederick "Fred" Zook (April 22, 1885 – August 17, 1951) was an American educator who was President of the University of Akron, U.S. Commissioner of Education, and President of the American Council on Education.
Life and career Zook was born on April 22, 1885, on a farm near Fort Scott, Kansas, the son of Stephen Douglas Zook and Helen Follenius.Education: Zook, Time, July 3, 1933 He enrolled at the University of Kansas in 1902, funding his education by driving a hearse. After graduation he was a fellow at the University of Kansas, then an assistant at Cornell University, and a faculty member at Penn State University, where he advanced from instructor to full professor. His PhD The Company of Royal Adventurers Trading into Africa, was published in the Journal of Negro History in 1919. He subsequently specialised in modern European history. During World War I he worked in propaganda. In 1920 he began a 5-year stint as chief of the Division of Higher Education in the U. S. Bureau of Education.
In 1925 he became president of the University of Akron, serving there until 1933.UA Historical Timeline: President George F. Zook, 1925-1933 , University of Akron website, accessed June 22, 2010
In July 1933 he assumed the position of Commissioner of Education under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.Education: Schools at the Turn, Time, September 18, 1933 He resigned the following year, effective July 1, 1934, to become head of the American Council on Education (ACE).Education: Studebaker for Zook, Time, May 28, 1934
Zook was president of the ACE from 1934 until retiring in 1950. During his tenure, the organization's membership grew from 269 to 1,093 member groups and became an important voice in education policy. Among the new policy initiatives it supported was the Fulbright Scholars program.Education: No Job for Mollycoddles, Time, May 15, 1950
In 1946 President Harry Truman appointed Zook to chair a 28-member Presidential Commission on Higher Education that was given the charge of reexamining the U.S. system of higher education "in terms of its objectives, methods, and facilities; and in the light of the social role it has to play." In 1947 the commission produced a six-volume report entitled Higher Education for American Democracy that recommended changes to expand opportunities for postsecondary education.The President's Commission Higher Education for Democracy, 1947 , University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign College of Education website, accessed June 22, 2010
George Zook was married to Susie Gant, a fellow student at Kansas. They were the parents of an adopted son. Zook died August 17, 1951, at age 66.The 1950s: Education: Deaths, Encyclopedia.com, accessed June 22, 2010
References
External links Portrait of George F. Zook on cover of Time, September 18, 1933