The Newtown bee., 1909-03-12
The NewtoWn Bee.
 NswtOwR, Friday, March ie, 1908,
Washington.
\ GRoGRAPHER AND HIs MoRK

Not many washington people know, perhaps that Prof Richard El- wood Dodge of Columbia universlt., and now q local property owner and citizen and member of the Washing ton school board. is the author of one Of the best series of school geog-
 raphies published. Rand, MeNally < Co.,, of New York and Chicago, the publishers, have just issued a neat
 little booklet on these geographles, entitled "A Ge0grapher and His
 Work" In this sketch they say in part: "The educational field m America has attracted many eminent
 workers, ard among these have been
 found not a few of thegreatseientists of the world. While these workers
 have done much to advance the cause of education, their labor, as a
 rule, has been outside the child.
 Noteworthy, m contrast, is that of
 Prof Dodge, who has given largely
 to the young from his store of knowl- edge and has wrought diligently to make them familiar with his favorite science. It follows naturally then,
 that his life should be of interest.
 Prof Dodge was born in Wenham, Mass, town in the vicinity of Bos- ton, and here on a farm he spent his
 boyhood and his early school days. The experience thus gained has proved of great value to him in his study of the relations of the earth and the habits and industrial life of the people. Later he entered liar yard, but not until his junior year, under Prof Shaler, d., he show evil dences of marned interest in geo. graphic work. Al this time also was awakened that interest in thekuman side of the subject which was to play so important part in his work of later years. Coming soon afterunder the instruction of Prof Davis, one
 the leading geographers of the coun- try, the student scientist gave him. self unreservedly to his chosen study.
 Made assistant to Prof Shaler in
 1891, he continued his association
 with his home university in this ca pacity, and later as instructor, until 1895. By this time Prof Dodge had shown that his was no ordinary fig ure in the geographic world. The Teachers College, Columbia Univer- sity, New York City, now seeking all able teacher for its department of teaching geography, and desiring a man trained in the then new field of Dhysiceraphy, turned naturally to Prof Dodge. Upon his reputation as a progressive and peculiarly success full instructor, and on the recom- mendation of Prof Davis of Harvard, he was engaged and he entered upon his duties in the ensuing Fall. In the meantime, and without interfering with his class work he continued to serve during five successive summers as assistant on the United States Geological Survey, a position he had held since 1890. The first years spent in New England. and the last two in the southern Appalachians, gave him an intimate knowledge of these sections; while three successive summers devoted to scientific work in Arizona and New Mexico, among the old ruins of California, and among the Navajo Indians, and to the study of the Grand Canyon re- giCn broadened his knowledge ir that section. Not satisfied with less than ar al]-rouId view of the geo. srapy of his country, Prof Dodge ex- tend I'd nis travelst rough every State in the Union with the exception of eight, thus 0btaini"g a vivid person. al impression and an accurate fund of information, the value of which cannot be overestimated in the light of the work he was to do. With this busy life and constantly widening view Prof Dodge conducted and still corducts, his classes at Teachers College, as at Harvard, with remark able success. At the same time, in the interest of his work he has edited with ability the Journal of Geo. graphy," a magazine for teachers of geography. While instructing teach CTS in a teachers training school second to none in the United States, Prof Dodge has had advantages al, forded no other writer on gpograni1v. Unlike so many Of his contemporaries who live on the heights and heycnt the audience they wish to reach, Prof Dodge has been so happily placed as to see and come in contact with all sides of his subject. AS supervisor of the geography work in the Horace Mann Graded School, the school of observation for Teach CTS College, an1 as author of the course of geography in use in the