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Stanford Professor Created A New Breed of Professional

When a former student and colleague sought an affectionate nickname for Ellwood P. Cubberley, the Stanford University professor who would become one of the century's most influential educators, the young man chose "Dad." The name stuck, and from about 1903 to his retirement in 1933, "Dad" was how Cubberley was known to his students.

The teacher and scholar had no children of his own, but he fostered the careers of two generations of school administrators. Cubberley, in fact, helped create the profession. In large part as a result of his work, school administration parted ways with teaching, growing into a separate field with its own conventions and body of knowledge.

Cubberley, the founding father of a profession, was paternal...