ABSTRACT
This chapter considers how two college presidents led their institutions while supporting the controversial movement for simplified spelling during the Progressive Era. Homer Seerley of the Iowa State Teachers College and David Felmley of Illinois State Normal University faced much public scrutiny and yet enjoyed long and celebrated presidencies. After outlining their early careers and spelling reform in the late nineteenth century, this chapter explores Seerley’s and Felmley’s approaches to supporting this innovation at the national, state, and campus levels in the early twentieth century, when both remained intellectually committed to simplified spelling yet mindful of the practical need to maintain support for their institution. While historians acknowledge that Progressive-Era leaders in higher education found it necessary to cultivate a positive institutional image, they have written little about how presidents actually navigated the perils that public relations posed for innovation. This examination of Seerley’s and Felmley’s distinctively measured approach to supporting change in spelling illustrates the ins and outs of higher-education leaders’ work in different arenas to reconcile unpopular undertakings with public pressures, demonstrating how successful administrators variously push forward and pull back. The experiences of the two teachers-college presidents with simplified spelling also suggest that concern over public opinion can work to impede innovation and change in higher education.
