Elwood Murray (1897-1988) was an American administrator and scientist in the field of speech communications and

general semantics General semantics is a school of thought that incorporates philosophy, philosophic and science, scientific aspects. Although it does not stand on its own as a separate list of schools of philosophy, school of philosophy, a separate science, or ...

Biography

Elwood Murray was born in 1897 and raised on a farm near

Hastings, Nebraska Hastings is a List of cities in Nebraska, city in and the county seat of Adams County, Nebraska, Adams County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 25,152 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Neb ...

. He obtained a

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

degree in 1922 from

Hastings College Hastings College is a private Presbyterian college in Hastings, Nebraska. History The college was founded in 1882 by a group of men and women seeking to establish a Presbyterian college. Academics The college offers more than 40 underg ...

, with majors in English and

American History The history of the present-day United States began in roughly 15,000 BC with the arrival of Peopling of the Americas, the first people in the Americas. In the late 15th century, European colonization of the Americas, European colonization beg ...

and received his M.A. in 1924 in Education and

Speech Speech is the use of the human voice as a medium for language. Spoken language combines vowel and consonant sounds to form units of meaning like words, which belong to a language's lexicon. There are many different intentional speech acts, suc ...

at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...

and Ph.D. in Speech and

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

from the

in 1931. In 1931 Murray began teaching Speech at the

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1864, it has an enrollment of approximately 5,700 undergraduate students and 7,200 graduate students. It is classified among "R1: D ...

. From 1932 until his retirement in 1962 he directed the School of Speech at the University. In 1949 he initiated the founding of the National Society for the Study of Communication, and served as its president in 1953. End 1950s he was among the first members of the

Society for General Systems Research The International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS) is a worldwide organization for systems sciences. The overall purpose of the ISSS is: to promote the development of conceptual frameworks based on general system theory, as well as their i ...

. He served as director of the

Institute of General Semantics The Institute of General Semantics (IGS) is a not-for-profit corporation established in 1938 by Alfred Korzybski, to support research and publication on the topic of general semantics. The Institute publishes Korzybski's writings, including the se ...

from 1967-1969.

Work

Murray participated in numerous conferences, presenting papers on

and

communications theory Communication theory is a proposed description of communication phenomena, the relationships among them, a storyline describing these relationships, and an argument for these three elements. Communication theory provides a way of talking about a ...

. In 1939 he participated in the first of his five seminars with

Alfred Korzybski Alfred Habdank Skarbek Korzybski (; ; July 3, 1879 – March 1, 1950) was a Polish-American philosopher and independent scholar who developed a field called general semantics, which he viewed as both distinct from, and more encompassing than, ...

in Chicago. Jointly with

Marjorie Kendig Marjorie Kendig Gates (1892–1981), best known as M . Kendig, was an American administrator, director of the Institute of General Semantics from 1950 until 1965, and co-worker of Alfred Korzybski, who developed the theory of general semantics. ...

he programmed the 1942 and 1950 congresses in

held at the University of Denver.Biographical Sketch
, retrieved 15 April 2008. In 1952 Murray wrote ''Integrative Speech'', which was one of the first textbooks to introduce general semantics in the teaching of communication. Later according to Brownell (1979), "Murray founded the Interdisciplinary Analogue Laboratory which was designed to identify analogous structures occurring in different fields of education. These basic structures could then serve as foundations of an integrated curriculum where students would be encouraged to view their subjects of study relationally".Judith Brownell (1979), "Elwood Murray's Interdisciplinary Analogue Laboratory" in: ''Communication Education'', v28 n1 p9-21 Jan 1979.

Publications

* 1937, ''The Speech Personality''. Lippincott. * 1952, ''Integrative Speech'' Dryden Press. * 1969, ''Speech: Science-Art''. Bobbs-Merrill.

References

External links

Guide to the Elwood Murray Papers at the University of Denver
Retrieved 2014-09-26 {{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, Elwood 1897 births 1988 deaths General semantics