Gulick, Luther Halsey [key], 1865–1918, American pioneer in physical education, b. Honolulu, of American missionary parents. He studied at Oberlin College, Sargent School of Physical Training (now part of Boston Univ.), and the New York Univ. medical college (M.D., 1889). From 1887 to 1903 he was secretary of the physical training department of the YMCA. He devised the emblem of the organization and, with James Naismith, originated the game of basketball. He was director of physical training in the New York City public schools from 1903 to 1908; in 1907 he founded the child hygiene department of the Russell Sage Foundation, directing it until his retirement in 1913. With others he founded (1910) the Camp Fire Girls movement. He devoted much of his time to associations interested in hygiene and physical education, wrote several books in these fields, and lectured extensively. In 1917 he surveyed the work of the YMCA in France, returning to write his last and best-known book, The Dynamic of Manhood (1917).
See biography by E. J. Dorgan (1934, repr. 1973).
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