American Medical Biographies/Gulick, Luther Halsey
Gulick, Luther Halsey (1865–1918)
Luther Halsey Gulick, physical educator, was born at Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands, December 4, 1865, son of Luther Halsey and Louisa Lewis Gulick. He was a student at Oberlin College 1880–82 and 1883–86; a student at Sargent Normal School of Physical Training, Harvard, 1865; he graduated from New York University medical school in 1889. He was appointed director of physical training in the public schools of New York City in 1903, remaining in this position until 1908, following a term of seven years as superintendent of the physical training department of the Young Men's Christian Association Training School at Springfield, Massachusetts, 1886–1903. He was director of the department of child hygiene, Russell Sage Foundation, 1907–13; president of Camp Fire Girls from January, 1913, to the time of his death. He was editor of the Physical Education Review, 1901–3, Association Outlook, 1897–1900, and Gulick Hygiene Series. He was president of the American Physical Education Association, 1903; vice-president of the Young Men's Christian Association Athletic League of North America, 1903–6; president of the Public School Physical Training Society, 1905–8; and president of the Playground Association of America, 1906–9; also secretary of the Public Schools Athletic League of New York, 1903–8. Dr. Gulick lectured on school hygiene and personal hygiene, physical training and play, at New York University in 1906; was a member of the Olympic Games Committee, Athens, 1906, London, 1908; United States delegate to the second International Congress on School Hygiene, London, 1907. He received from the Young Men's Christian Association Training School, Springfield, Mass., the degree of Master of Physical Education; was consultant of the New York Hospital for Deformities and Joint Diseases, 1907, and a member of the Permanent Committee of the International Congress of School Hygiene.
He wrote books on the subject of physical culture, among which are: "The Efficient Life," 1907; "Physical Education by Muscular Exercise," 1904; and "Mind and Work," 1908.
He married Charlotte Vetter, of Hanover, New Hampshire, in 1887.
Dr. Gulick had recently returned from a trip to France, in the interest of the Young Men's Christian Association, for the purpose of making a survey of the moral environments of the American Expeditionary Forces, when his death took place. He died at South Casco, Maine, August 13, 1918.