Cornell Memorial Statement for Claude L. Kulp (April 28, 1894 — July 25, 1969)
"Few men have contributed so much, so well, to so many, in the promotion of education in the Empire State as has Claude L. Kulp. A native son, formally educated in the public schools of Rochester and at Rochester Mechanics Institute, the University of Rochester, Columbia and Cornell Universities, he, throughout his lifetime, steadily sought further educational perfection through his own studious efforts.
Since his early years he had dedicated his talents to the general welfare of children and youth, ever sensitive to the fullest development of their potentialities through education at its best in a viable democracy. Rare is the educator who has successfully taken the progressive and comprehensive steps in educational services that can be credited to Claude L. Kulp. Among his varied positions may be mentioned teacher of industrial arts, football coach, director of vocational education, director of elementary education, assistant superintendent, and superintendent of schools.
Further, he served as associate state commissioner for elementary, secondary and adult education; professor of education; supervisor of experimental programs in elementary teacher education; and coordinator of the office of field services at Cornell University. Each advance came without solicitation, with notable modesty; each position was held with distinction; all were marked by a high degree of success.
Other services included the direction and coordination of school surveys; consultant services in many school systems; director, division of civic education for Out-of-School Youth (New York), 1941; and instructor, coast artillery school, World War I.
His colleagues in education honored him by election to several presidencies, first as president of the Southern Zone, New York State Teachers Association, and later to president of the New York State Teachers Association. For many years after his tenure as president he served the New York State Teachers Association as treasurer. In 1938 he was elected president of the New York State Council of City and Village Superintendents. He was chairman of the executive committee of the New York Council on Rural Education for twenty years.
He served with distinction as a member of a number of state and national education committees, including the Advisory Council and Planning Committee of the American Association of School Administrators; the Professional Advisory Committee on Readjustment of High School Education; the Regents Examination Board; and the Legislation Committee of the National Education Association. He was also a consultant to the Temporary Commission on Educational Finance, New York State.
Colleges, universities and other institutions also benefited from his wisdom and broad experience. He was a member of numerous boards of trustees, including those of George Junior Republic, Ithaca College and Syracuse University.
He was well known throughout the state of New York. In every district, large and small, he was marked as a man of distinction not only for his leadership in education but for his high character and human touch. Effective, eloquent and pleasing in platform address, he consistently sustained the cause of better educational opportunities for all children. He vigorously supported education at all times, particularly against vicious attack. He never failed to exalt the work of the teacher and professor as fundamental to our democratic society.
Numerous professional journals sought the sagacious and poignant articles from his pen. The results of experimental programs under his direction have been widely circulated and the significant results of numerous survey reports have been given the immortal baptism of printer’s ink.
In addition to the realm of professional education Claude L. Kulp was a distinguished citizen of the Ithaca community. His many activities included chairman of a church board of trustees, president of the Y.M.C.A. board of directors, president of the Boy Scouts of America Council, and American Legionnaire. He served in the presidencies (Ithaca) of the Rotary Club, Chamber of Commerce, and Community Chest, and in the chairmanships of the Greater Cornell Fund and the Tompkins County War and Community Fund. He was on the board of trustees of the Ithaca Savings Bank.
His friends and associates remember him for yet other things: for his warm and very human personality; for his humility, which was at odds with his magnificent abilities and experience; for his executive proficiencies as coupled with extraordinary friendliness and ease of approach; for his consummate devotion to his work; for the high-principled convictions exemplified by his everyday life; for his love of family and community; and for the multitude of friends whom he served but of whom he asked little.
He is survived by his wife, Mabel Ross Kulp; two sons, Arthur Claude Kulp and Robert Ross Kulp; and five grandchildren."