Leonard Porter Ayres was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 educator

Education

Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

, soldier, and statistician.

Biography

Ayres was born at Niantic

Niantic, Connecticut

Niantic is a census-designated place and village in the Town of East Lyme, Connecticut in the United States. The population was 3,085 at the 2000 census....

, Conn.

Connecticut

Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...

  He received his college and graduate training at Boston

Boston University

Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...

, Harvard

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, and Columbia

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 universities.

He began teaching in 1902 as one of the first to carry American ideas and methods to Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

. There he was appointed superintendent of schools in the districts of Caguas and San Juan, and later general superintendent of all the public schools on the island.

Returning to live in the United States, Ayres was made head of the division of statistics

Statistics

Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....

 in the Playground Association of America. Beginning in 1908, he was prominently identified with the work of the Russell Sage Foundation

Russell Sage Foundation

The Russell Sage Foundation is the principal American foundation devoted exclusively to research in the social sciences. Founded in 1907 and headquartered in New York City, the foundation is a research center, a funding source for studies by scholars at other institutions, and a key member of the...

, especially as chairman

Chair (official)

The chairman is the highest officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office is typically elected or appointed by the members of the group. The chairman presides over meetings of the assembled group and conducts its business in an...

 of the committee in charge of the Backward Children Investigation.

In 1908-09 Ayres lectured on education at New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

. He apparently tallied a count of the U.S. Army battle deaths for World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 during which, or shortly afterward, he served as a major. Ayres was recalled to active duty in 1940 with the rank of brigadier general. He retired in 1942 and was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal

Distinguished Service Medal (United States)

The Distinguished Service Medal is the highest non-valorous military and civilian decoration of the United States military which is issued for exceptionally meritorious service to the government of the United States in either a senior government service position or as a senior officer of the United...

.

Works

His writings on educational subjects , besides reports and contributions to periodicals, are:

• A Course of Study for the Schools of San Juan (1905)
• Medical Inspection of Schools, with Luther H. Gulick
  Luther Gulick (physician)
  Luther Halsey Gulick, Jr. MD was an American physical education instructor, international basketball official, and founder with his wife of the Camp Fire Girls, an international youth organization now known as Camp Fire USA.-Life:...
  
  (1908)
• Laggards in our Schools (1909, 1913)
• Open Air Schools (1910)
• Seven Great Foundations (1911)
• Health Work in the Public Schools, with May Ayres (1915)
• A Measuring Scale for Ability in Spelling (1915, republished by Mott Media, Milford, Michigan 1985)

Many of his articles in educational journals have been reprinted, among them, The Effect of Promotion Rate on School Efficiency (1913).