Erle Elsworth Clippinger

Erle Elsworth Clippinger (September 27, 1875 – January 7, 1939) was an American writer, professor of English, and a scholar of children's literature in Indiana. He was one of the founding faculty members at Ball State University, where he chaired the English department for many years.

Early life and education

Clippinger was born on September 27, 1875, in Eau Claire, Michigan, to mother Mary Edna and father Henry G. Clippinger, who worked as a medical doctor. He graduated from Michigan State Normal College (now Eastern Michigan University) in 1900, and went on to the University of Michigan, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1903 and a master's degree in 1904. He also briefly attended graduate school at Harvard University.

Career and later life

He became an assistant professor at the Indiana State Normal School (now Indiana State University) in 1904. He moved to Ball State College in 1918, newly reopened after a previous school on the same site closed and the site was donated to the state of Indiana. He was the first teacher hired at the new school, and became head of its English department.

He wrote the first catalog of the school's curriculum and, ignoring the Indiana government's requirement that the newly founded school focus only on preparing students to become primary-school teachers, developed a curriculum that covered both primary and secondary-level education. At Ball State, Clippinger was "an effective, challenging instructor" but had difficult relations with some other faculty members. He stepped down as department chair in 1932. He retired in 1937 and was awarded emeritus professor the same year.