|
:: THE NAME AND THE MAN Born in 1898 near Topeka, Bert Allen Nash lived most of his life in the state where he devoted boundless energy to improving educational, guidance, and welfare services for children. Throughout his career, his intelligence, curiosity and compassion enabled him to develop new and innovative ways of approaching children’s educational and mental health issues. A 1923 graduate of Washburn University in Topeka, he studied under the guidance of Karl Menninger; one of the most influential American psychiatrists of the time. In fact, when Bert Nash died suddenly in 1947, Dr. Menninger referred to him as “my most distinguished student.” While he started graduate school at Kansas University, Nash eventually earned a PhD at Ohio State University in 1928. In 1930, he was offered the position of director of Kansas University’s Psycho-Educational Clinic. He was also appointed associate professor of education. After several moves early in their marriage, he and his wife, the former Mina Ruth Bushong of Topeka, settled in Lawrence. Dr. Nash’s faculty position included teaching courses in educational psychology and the psychology of reading. In every area he approached, he was innovative. To test reading speed, Nash developed a technique that made use of the metronoscope, an instrument that flashed words at a given time rhythmically across a line, compelling the eye to follow. |
|
|
