Ernest Edward Schwarztrauber was born December 25, 1884, on a farm at Greenwich, Ohio, and died September 15, 1950, at Pacific Palisades, California. After graduating from high school, he taught for four years in rural schools in Ohio. He obtained his bachelor's degree at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, in 1912. His master's degree was received at Columbia University in 1913, and in 1940 he received his doctor's degree in economics at the University of Wisconsin.
After serving as Y.M.C.A. secretary in Portland, Oregon from 1914 to 1916, he taught history at Lincoln High School in that city until 1930. A pioneer in the workers' education movement, he organized the Portland Labor College in 1921. He was professor of economics at Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin, from 1933 to 1937, and served as Director of the Wisconsin School for Workers from 1937 until his death in 1950.
Schwarztrauber's life was dedicated to the cause of worker's education. Religion also held a vital place in his life, and he early came to the conclusion that it was his religious duty to study the conditions of the underprivileged and to work for their amelioration. He popularized the Wisconsin Idea in workers' education, serving as a link between educators, labor groups, and religious organizations.
