Knowles, Malcolm S. (Malcolm Shepherd), 1913-1997

Malcolm S. Knowles was born August 24, 1913 in Livingston, Montana. Following his graduation from Palm Beach, Florida High School in 1930, he enrolled in Harvard College where he obtained his A.B. in 1934. He completed his academic studies at the University of Chicago by earning an M.A. in 1949 and a Ph.D. in 1960. He married Hulda Fornell in 1935 by whom he had two children; Eric (1941) and Barbara E. Hartl (1946).

During his early career years, Malcolm S. Knowles held administrative positions with the National Youth Administration of Massachusetts and YMCAs in Boston, Detroit and Chicago. From 1951-1959 he was Executive Director of the Adult Education Association of the U.S.A. (AEA-USA). Under his leadership, Knowles helped to establish the Commission of Professors of Adult Education as an affiliated association of the AEA-USA. From 1960-1974 he was a Professor of Education at Boston University. With the start of the fall semester, 1974 he taught as Professor of Adult and Community Education at North Carolina State University in Raleigh until his retirement in 1979.

In addition to his administrative and teaching duties, Malcolm S. Knowles was actively involved as a consultant to numerous corporations, associations and organizations and wrote several books: Informal Adult Education ; Teaching Adults in Informal Courses ; How to Develop Better Leaders ; Introduction to Group Dynamics ; Handbook of Adult Education in the U.S. ; The Adult Education Movement in the U.S. ; Higher Adult Education in the U.S. ; The Modern Practice of Adult Education ; The Adult Learner: A Neglected Species ; Self-Directed Learning: A Guide for Learners and Teachers ; and A History of the Adult Education Movement in the U.S. He has authored many other monographs, book chapters and journal articles.

From the guide to the Malcolm S. Knowles Papers, 1930-1985, 1951-1985, (Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries)