author
Frank Parsons
1854–1908
A pioneering American reformer, educator, and lawyer, he is best remembered for launching the vocational guidance movement that helped people choose work more thoughtfully. His ideas about matching personal strengths with the right career left a lasting mark on counseling and education.
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About the author
Born in Mount Holly, New Jersey, on November 14, 1854, Frank Parsons built an unusually wide-ranging career. He studied civil engineering at Cornell, later passed the Massachusetts bar, and worked as a teacher, lawyer, lecturer, and writer on public affairs and social reform.
Parsons became known for his energetic interest in practical social problems, including education, labor, and municipal reform. He taught at several institutions, including Boston University School of Law, and wrote extensively for readers interested in fairer, more effective public life.
He is most often remembered as a founder of vocational guidance. In Boston, shortly before his death in 1908, he helped establish a bureau devoted to advising young people on careers, arguing that good career choices should be based on a clear understanding of a person's abilities and interests as well as the demands of different kinds of work. That approach helped shape the later development of career counseling.