Hugh Victor Perkins, Jr.

Hugh V. Perkins, Jr. (1918–1988) was an education professor, researcher, author, and professional trainer in the Department of Human Development at University of Maryland–College Park. His influence on professional K-12 and higher education, parenting, lifespan human development, and learning is based on the textbooks and other scholarly publications he authored, a lifetime of teaching and graduate mentoring, and his many case-study-based parent, teacher, and principal trainings in Pakistan, and throughout the United States. His ground-breaking research starting in the 1940s, when much educational knowledge was based on untested theories, focused on a range of practical topics, including evaluation of a case study approach to professional educator and parent training, group social climate influences on learning, children’s self-concepts, classroom student and teacher behavioral assessment, teaching underachieving primary school students, and the benefits of free higher education for retirees. As the field of education evolved, so too did Perkins’ thinking and work, starting with a focus on teaching, learning, and development in children and adolescents expanding ultimately to include lifelong learning opportunities for adults. Throughout that evolution, Perkins emphasized the importance of dissemination of practical, but theoretically and empirically based, information on human development and learning. Perkins’ focus remained primarily on schools and universities, but his textbooks, workshops, and his own life reveal a clear understanding of the importance of continuous curiosity, learning and development outside the classroom and across the lifespan.