Ernest O. Melby

Ernest Oscar Melby (August 16, 1891 – January 11, 1987) was a professor, dean, and university president.

Ernest Oscar Melby was born in Lake Park, Minnesota, the son of Ole Hanson and Ellen Stakke Melby. Melby received his B.A. from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota in 1913. He attended graduate school at the University of Minnesota to receive his masters and Ph.D. He married Aurora Herbert on December 29, 1914. Aurora and Ernest Melby met in Alexandria, Minnesota, when he was a physics teacher. They had one child, Stanley Herbert Melby.

Melby began his career as a high school teacher and principal in Minnesota before serving for nine years as the superintendent of schools in Long Prairie, Black Duck and Brewster, Minnesota. He served as a schools superintendent. In 1928, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Education at Northwestern University, where he conducted prolific research on the administration of several Illinois school districts, the results of which were published in 1929 and 1930. As a result, he was rapidly promoted to associate professor and professor. In 1934, he was named Dean of the School of Education at Northwestern, a position he held until 1941 when his antagonistic relationship with University President Franklyn Bliss Snyder deteriorated to the point where Melby resigned.

Melby assumed the presidency of University of Montana (though it was named Montana State University until it was renamed in 1965), a post he held from 1941 to 1943 and from 1944 to 1945. In 1943, he was Chancellor of the University of Montana. From 1945 to 1956, Melby served as Dean of the School of Education (now Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development) at New York University.

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