William Dreier Professor of Education, Emeritus, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa. Retired in 1985 after thirty-six years of college teaching
Born: Detroit, Michigan B. S.: Iowa State University, 1940 M. A.: University of Minnesota, 1947 Ph. D.: University of Minnesota, 1949 Major: Rural and Elementary Education Home: 2604 College Street, Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613 Professor at: ISTC, SCI, UNI from 1949-1985
During his second year as a Vocational Agriculture teacher in a Consolidated School, Dreier was drafted into the U. S. Army in 1941. After fifty months of service, he returned from Europe as a Major in the Air Force and enrolled at the University of Minnesota, receiving a Ph. D. in 1949. He was employed as an instructor at Iowa State Teachers College, Department of Educational Psychology and Foundations, from 1949 to 1985. In his second year at Cedar Falls, Dreier was Director of the I. S. T. C. Branch Summer School in western Iowa at Missouri Valley. In the summer of 1956 he was Supervisor and Instructor of the 6th grade of the Price Laboratory School, and from 1957 to 1966 he coordinated the Summer Aerospace Education Workshops. From 1963 to 1970 he was Administrative Assistant to the Head of the Department of Education. He regularly taught Rural Sociology in the Department of Sociology once a year from 1975 to 1984. Professional leadership included president of the U. N I. Education Association in 1953, 1963, and 1968; president of the Black Hawk County Education Association in 1953-55; Iowa director of Rural Education, N. E. A., 1955-56; and president of the National Rural Education Association, 1966-67. From 1971 to 1975, he was Field Secretary for the National Rural Education Association. In 1975 and 1976, he was the first Iowa North Central Association of Schools Chairperson for Elementary Schools. T
he major community interest for Dreier is his church. He is a charter member of the Valley View Baptist Church, Cedar Falls. He has served as Church School Superintendent, deacon, church school teacher, and church moderator. In 1958-60, he was president of the Iowa Baptist Men; in 1960-61 he was vice president of the Iowa Baptist Convention; from 1971-76 he was a member of the Regional Policy Board; and 1974-75 president of the MidAmerican Baptist Churches. From 1976 to 1984, he was a member of the General Board of the American Baptist Churches-USA, and a member of the executive committee of the American Baptist Charismatic Fellowship since its formation. His first professional writing was a joint paper with his college psychology professor, published by the Iowa Academy of Science in 1940. Since then he has published over 180 articles, papers, and reports. He is co-author of Social Foundations of Education--Outline and Workbook, printed by William C. Brown Book Company, and author of The Community School District in Iowa, and Preparing the Community and School for Paraprofessionals published by the Extension Service of the University of Northern Iowa in 1967 and 1970. From 1971-75 he was the editor of the Rural Education News and since 1983 an assistant editor.
Presently he is a member of the Rural Sociology Society, the National Rural Education Association, Phi Delta Kappa, Arcturus Club, and a life member of I. S. E. A. and N. E. A. as well as the Valley View Baptist Church and ABCF. He and Mary Ellen Dreier were married forty-five years (in 1987) and have five children and then eight grandchildren living in New York, Iowa, and Oregon.