George Dinsmore Stoddard

George Dinsmore Stoddard (October 8, 1897 – December 28, 1981) was the president of University of Illinois and the University of the State of New York. He was also the chancellor of New York University and Long Island University.

Early life Stoddard was born in Carbondale, Pennsylvania, where he would be class salutatorian when he graduated from high school in 1915. He grew up Methodist but would become a Unitarian later in life.

After graduating high school he worked at a bank before enrolling at Pennsylvania State University where he was a member of Sigma Pi fraternity and studied industrial chemical engineering. He left college to serve in World War I as a second lieutenant of infantry in the U.S. Army. After the war he returned to Penn State and attempted several degree programs including mathematics and physics before finally receiving a degree in education in 1921. He then returned to Europe to study child psychology at the University of Paris where he studied under Th?odore Simon and received a diploma. He went on to receive his doctorate of child education at the University of Iowa in 1925.

He had a falling out with the Board of Trustees over university-supported research on Krebiozen, a drug claimed to be a cancer cure. When he ordered an end to funding for the research in 1953, he lost a “no confidence” vote with the trustees and resigned.

Stoddard became dean of the department of education in 1956. In 1960 he was named chancellor and executive vice president of the university. In 1962 he opened the first center for Hebrew studies at a public university. He retired in 1964 but remained a distinguished professor of education for three years.

Personal life and death Stoddard married Margaret Trautwein on December 26, 1925. They had three sons, Phillip, Arthur, and Alfred, and two daughters, Caroline and Eleanor.

Stoddard died on December 28, 1981.

Works “Krebiozen,” The Great Cancer Mystery (Boston: Beacon Press, 1955) Paranoids Versus the People (Kalamazoo, 1953). The Pursuit of Education: An Autobiography (New York: Vantage Press, 1981). The Meaning of Intelligence (New York: Macmillan Company, 1943).