BESS GOODYKOONTZ PAPERS
Herbert Hoover Presidential Library
West Branch, Iowa
The Bess Goodykoontz Papers document the career of Bureau of Education administrator Goodykoontz (1894-1990), and were donated in two accessions by her daughter in 1991 and 2002.
Bess Goodykoontz was born on August 21, 1894, and was raised in the town of Waukon in northeast Iowa. Goodykoontz attended the University of Iowa, where she earned bachelors and master’s degrees in education. Following her studies, Goodykoontz taught at schools in rural Iowa as well as the experimental school at the University of Iowa before serving as supervisor of elementary schools in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
In 1929, after having served as an assistant professor of education at the University of Pittsburgh for five years, Goodykoontz was appointed assistant U.S. Commissioner of Education, a position that she held in the Bureau of Education for the next sixteen years. During these years, the Bureau was a part of the Department of Interior, whose Secretary was Ray Lyman Wilbur, a longtime friend and associate of President Hoover. Both Hoover and Wilbur desired to bring about numerous reforms in the area of education.
During Goodykoontz’s tenure as Assistant Commissioner, she oversaw conferences sponsored by the Bureau, as well as field surveys, and acted as a departmental liaison with various lay groups and professional organizations concerned with education. This period was not only an era of reform, however, but also one marked by the crises of the Great Depression and World War II. In response, Goodykoontz advocated programs that would retrain the unemployed, and stressed that school classes needed to be made more relevant to these changing times. She also advocated the use of sound films and supported the addition of the industrial arts to the high school curriculum. With the advent of war, she also advocated day-care programs so that mothers would be able to work in the defense industries in greater numbers.
Following the war, Goodykoontz was sent to Germany in 1946 as part of a delegation representing the U.S. Office of Military Government. During her visit, she studied and made recommendations for educational programs in post-war Germany. That same year, Goodykoontz was promoted to the position of Director of the Division of Elementary Education within the Bureau of Education, and in 1949 she was named Associate Commissioner. In 1951 she was appointed Director of Comparative Education, and worked throughout the 1950’s in the field of international education. Throughout her career, Goodykoontz was actively involved in a number of professional organizations, such as the Association for Childhood Education International, and served as vice president of the United States National Committee for Childhood Education and president of the World Organization for Early Childhood Education. She also attended a number of United Nations conferences on education as a delegate representing the United States.
Although Goodykoontz retired from the Bureau of Education in 1960, she continued authoring textbooks about education, and working as a consultant. In 1973 she moved to South Newfane, Vermont, where she died on July 29, 1990.
The Bess Goodykoontz Papers (approximately 2 linear feet) are divided into three main series: Articles and Addresses, 1929-1956 (two boxes); Publications, 1930-1964, (two boxes), and Personal Correspondence, 1921-1954, (one box).
The Articles and Addresses series (1929-56) contains notes for speeches and drafts of articles that she eventually published. Dr. Goodykoontz wrote and spoke of the need to adapt schools and education to the changes in the world. She said teachers should have broader training and learn to be more flexible. The depression, the war, and then the post war problems are all discussed in these papers. Her staff later indexed the speeches and this index can be found in the “Speech Index” file at the beginning of the series in Box 5. Many of her speeches and articles were later published and are found in Boxes 3 and 4.
The Publications series (1930-64) contains her published writings that appeared as booklets, brochures and books. Dr. Goodykoontz’ articles were printed in a variety of journals such as the “American Library Association,” “The Elementary English Review,” “Journal of Home Economics,”The Bureau of Education,” School Life,” “National Parent Teacher,” and the “National Education Association Journal.”
The Personal Correspondence box (1921-1954) contains the letters Dr. Goodykoontz wrote to her family telling of her daily life, and recording events such as lunching with Lou Henry Hoover or Eleanor Roosevelt. She describes the social life in Washington, DC and her many social obligations as well as her relaxing trips by car to places of interest in the area. Her letters tell more of her daily life than of her professional life but she describes her travel experiences in detail. For example, her trip to Germany in 1946 provides insight into the conditions there after World War II. She discusses the long hours she had to work and the problems with her superiors, some she liked and some she did not.
Bess Goodykoontz Papers
Box and Folder Inventory
Box Content
1 Articles and Addresses Series
Index of Speeches
1929-31
1932
1933-34
1935-36
1937-38
1939-40
1941
1942-44
1945
1946-47
2
1948-49
1950
1951-53
1954-56
Publications Series
1930-32
1933-34
3
1935-36
1937-38
Publications Series Continued
1939-41
1946-51
1952-54
1955-64
4
1955-60, Booklet “Helping Children Get Along in School”
1937, “The Teaching of Reading, A Second Report,” National Society for the
Study of Education Yearbook
1942, Book, “English for You and Me”
1942, Book, “Putting English to Work”
1942, Book, “English in Work and Play”
1953, “The Community School” National Society for the Study of Education
Yearbook
1957, Yearbook, “Education For Better Living”
5
Personal Series
Biography
Certificates and Photographs, 1956, Undated
Correspondence
1921-23
1924-25
1927-28
1929
Correspondence, Continued
1930-31
1932-34
1935-39
1946, Trip to Germany
1953