The majority of the collection is correspondence to/from John K. Osborn. The correspondence is divided into CMU, Department of Public Instruction, and Hillsdale College folders. The CMU correspondence is between Osborn, Professor David M. Trout, and President Eugene C. Warriner. In a letter of September 13, 1938, from Trout to Osborn, Trout notes the severe housing shortage and salary cuts by the Governor of Michigan effective July 1 through September 1, 1938 and a desire to hire Osborn in 1939. The Hillsdale correspondence focuses on Osborn getting his thesis published and finding a job through various placement sources, and his correspondence with Willfred Mauck, then President of Hillsdale College, about the Teacher Training Program which Osborn directed. Also included are a few of Osborn’s student papers from the University of Michigan, a report about the teacher training program at Hillsdale, three bibliographies, and biographical material, as well as one folder of papers written by Osborn, 1930-1931..
Biography:
John Kenneth Osborn (1901-) attended the University of Michigan from at least 1931 through 1934. His 1934 Ph.D. thesis was entitled, A comparison of reactions to personality and achievement test items. On June 16, 1927 in Ann Arbor, John wed Delight Elizabeth Evans (born December 16, 1902), the daughter of John L. and Gusta Evans of Bangor, Wisconsin. Osborn taught as a Professor of Education and served as Director of Teacher Training at Hillsdale College from 1934 until 1939. From the correspondence it is clear that CMU, particularly Professor David M. Trout, was interested in hiring Osborn as early as 1934. Because of the low salaries and the unavailability of Mount Pleasant housing options in 1934, Osborn, who was responsible for the care and housing of his in-laws as well as his wife, Delight, declined the 1934 job offer by CMU. Osborn was hired by CMU in 1939, where he taught education and psychology until 1970. He was remembered by his peers as a “serious-minded, dedicated person.” Osborn was also an ordained minister and worked as the part-time pastor of the Rosebush Presbyterian Church. John K. Osborn died at the age of 88 in Reinbeck, Iowa, on August 13, 1992. (This information is from the collection, his obituary of August 31, 1992 in CMLife, and a note about him in Centralight, Spring 1993.)
Delight Osborn graduated from the LaCrosse, Wisconsin School of Nursing in 1923 and from the School of Education at the University of Michigan in 1928. She worked as a registered nurse at the University of Michigan Hospital and a hospital in Wisconsin before working as the school nurse at the lab school at CMU from 1958 to 1970. Delight was also an ordained deacon of the Presbyterian Church and a member of First Presbyterian Church in Mount Pleasant, as well as other women’s organizations. On September 26, 1986 Delight died in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, at the age of 83. She was survived by her husband, John, son, John William Osborn, and a brother. (This information is from her obituary of September 29, 1986 in the Morning Sun.)
