Lawrence A. (Lawrence Augustus) Wilkins

Born in Des Moines, Iowa, on November 11, 1878, and raised in Iowa and Nebraska, he came to higher education later than many of his contemporaries. He entered Syracuse University in 1900, graduated in 1904, and then continued at Columbia University, while beginning the teaching career that would define his life.

Working in New York City public schools, he became head of the Spanish department at DeWitt Clinton High School and, in 1917, Director of Modern Languages for the New York City Board of Education. Contemporary accounts credit him with playing a major role in organizing and expanding Spanish study in the United States during a period of rapid growth, and the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese traces its beginnings to his efforts. Alongside that public work, he wrote and edited many Spanish-language textbooks, readers, and teaching manuals for students and teachers.

Wilkins died in New York on December 24, 1945. He is remembered not just as a textbook author, but as an energetic builder of language education in American schools and a widely respected advocate for the study of Spanish.