Chapter 12: Educating For Life In A Democracy: The Life and Work of Richard E. Gross

Richard E. Gross was a nationally prominent social studies educator whose career spanned the second half of the 20th century. Born in Chicago in 1921, he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and his doctorate in education from Stanford University in 1951. After a 4-year teaching stint at Florida State University, he returned to Stanford as a faculty member in 1955 and spent the rest of his career there, retiring in 1990. Gross is probably best remembered for the large number of graduate students he mentored at Stanford. These doctoral and masters’ students, ultimately spread across the United States and around the world, positioning themselves in universities, state departments of education, and schools, where they helped shape the development of history and social studies curriculum and instruction, frequently in significant ways. As lie observed in his annual newsletter to liis former students, prior to the National Council for the Social Studies annual meeting in Portland in 1979, “This year I am pleased to note 31 of us on the program! I am sure no other university can match that number. It is personally and professionally rewarding to myself to find such a strong representation.” A decade later, as Gross contemplated retirement in emeritus status and the conclusion of 35 years at Stanford, he wrote to his former students, “After just over 100 doctoral students and about 1500 masters students, it seems very important to maintain the program with its outstanding record of graduates.” Not a vain man, he nevertheless took pride in his students and in being referred to as “Mr. Social Studies.”