In Memoriam: William W. Brickman, 1913-1986

Abstract

William W. Brickman, the founder, first president (1956-59), and president again in 1967-68 of the Comparative and International Education Society (then the Comparative Education Society), died on June 22, 1986. A scholar, linguist, editor, and teacher admired and beloved by those whose lives he touched, Brickman played a vital role in the development of comparative and international education in the decades after World War II. A gadfly who insisted on rigorous academic standards in an era lulled by traveler's tales, a historian with Western roots who called on educators to go beyond their own ethnocentricity, he laid foundations that still define the field today. We are all in his debt. Brickman, who was born and educated in New York City and buried in Israel, held academic appointments at New York University (194062), from which he had received his doctorate in 1938, and the University of Pennsylvania (1962-81), where he occupied a position previously held by Thomas Woody. An inveterate traveler whose journeys began when he served with the United States Army in Germany during World War II, he led seminars in Europe, South America, Asia, and Africa and served as visiting professor at the University of Hamburg in Germany, at BarIlan University in Israel, at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, and at Columbia University, the University of California, Los Angeles, Yeshiva University, Loyola University, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Toledo, and the University of Wyoming in the United States. A productive and learned scholar who authored, coauthored, or edited 28 books and numerous articles, he was also editor of School and Society/ Intellect (1953-76) and of Western European Education (1979-86). In addition, he was a member of the editorial boards of Soviet Education and Paedagogica Historica.