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Luther Gulick

Luther Halsey Gulick, M.D., (December 4, 1865–August 13, 1918) was an American physical education instructor, international basketball official, and founder of the Camp Fire Girls, an international youth organization now known as Camp Fire USA (as its members are female and male).

He was born at Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands. After studying at Oberlin Academy and at the Sargent Normal School of Physical Training, he graduated from the medical department of New York University in 1889. While working as head of physical education at the International Y.M.C.A. Training School, now Springfield College, in Springfield, Massachusetts, Gulick directed James Naismith, a teacher at the school, to create a winter sport to be played indoors; Naismith would invent and popularize basketball in response. Gulick worked with Naismith to spread the sport, chairing the Basketball Committee of the Amateur Athletic Union (1895–1905) and representing the United States Olympic Committee during the 1908 Olympic Games. In view of his continued efforts to increase the popularity of the game of basketball and of physical fitness in general, Gulick was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor in 1959.

He was superintendent of the physical training department of the International Y. M. C. A. Training School, now Springfield College, at Springfield, Massachusetts (1887-1900), principal of the Pratt Institute High School (1900-03), in 1903-08 had charge of the physical training in the public schools of New York City, and from 1908 to 1913 directed the department of child hygiene at the Russell Sage Foundation. He served as president of the American Physical Education Association in 1903-06, of the Public School Physical Training Society in 1905-08, of the Playground Association of America, and of the Camp Fire Girls after 1913. Besides editing Physical Education (1891-1896), Association Outlook (1897-1900), American Physical Education Review (1901-1903), and the Gulick Hygiene Series, he wrote:

• Manual of Physical Measurements (1892)
• Physical Education by Muscular Exercise (1904)
• The Efficient Life (1907)
• Mind and Work (1908)
• The Healthful Art of Dancing (1910)
• Medical Inspection of Schools, with Leonard Porter Ayres (1908, 1913)

In 1910, Gulick was the president of the Playground Association of America, and was involved with recommending the secretary of the association, James E. West to head the new Boy Scouts of America.^[1]

With his wife, Gulick founded the Camp Fire Girls to prepare women for work outside the home; the two were also active in the creation and expansion of the Boy Scout movement, as both the Camp Fire Girls and Boy Scouts movements helped to promote physical fitness and expand exercise opportunities for youth. Gulick also founded Camp Timanous, a boys' summer camp and Camp Wohelo, a girl's summer camp, located near Raymond, Maine.

Gulick's nephew, Luther Halsey III Gulick, became a leading expert on public administration.

His sister, Frances Gulick Jewett, wrote a series of books on public health and hygene, which were regarded as the leading publications on public sanitation for many years.

Scouting Portal

1. ^ Rowan, Edward L (2005). To Do My Best: James E. West and the History of the Boy Scouts of America. Las Vegas International Scouting Museum. ISBN 0-9746479-1-8. 

• Basketball Hall of Fame profile

• This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.