Harold W. Stubblefield
Hall of Fame Class of 2001
Harold Stubblefield has been a dynamic contributor to adult education by building two graduate programs in adult education. He obtained bachelor's degrees in social science and technology, a master's degree in pastoral counseling, and a doctoral degree in adult education. Prior experience as a chaplain enabled him to excel as advisor, teacher, and administrator. He served in various capacities with the Commission of Professors of Adult Education, including two years as national chair, and currently is a member of the Executive Committee. He has served on the board of directors for the Association for Voluntary Action Scholars and the Virginia Association for Adult and Continuing Education.
Dr. Stubblefield was professor of adult education at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University from 1973 until his retirement in 1998. At Virginia Polytechnic Institute, he was the first full-time adult education faculty member and headed the program from 1973 to 1993. He developed and established the adult education doctoral program and developed several off-campus master's programs. He also served as principal investigator for funded research related to educational needs of Adult Basic Education (ABE) teachers, a national survey of volunteer administrators' educational and training needs, and basic skills training in the workplace for ASTD. He moved from Blacksburg to the institution's emerging Northern Virginia Graduate Center and established their adult education graduate program in 1985. During 1993 to 1995, he served as program director for all graduate education programs and helped turn the center into a major graduate education provider in the greater Washington, DC, area.
Stubblefield's scholarship has focused on adult education history. His publications include Towards a History of Adult Education in America, for which he received the American Association of Adult and Continuing Education Imogene Okes Award in 1988 for Outstanding Research in Adult Education. He co-authored Adult Education in the American Experience: From the Colonial Period to the Present with Patrick Keane, which won the National University Continuing Education Association's Philip E. Frandson Award for Literature in 1995.