Rev. Edward Pace (1861-1938) was among the first faculty selected for the new Catholic University of America in 1888. Here he stands outside McMahon Hall at The Catholic University of America, circa 1904. Image: Special Collections, University Photographs, The Catholic University of America.

Rev. Thomas Shields (1862-1921), the first chair of the Catholic University of America’s Department of Education. Image: Painting of Shields by di Valentine, undated. Special Collections, Museum Collection, The Catholic University of America.

Rev. Edward Pace (1861-1938) was among the first faculty selected for the new Catholic University of America in 1888. After studying for the priesthood at St. Charles College in Ellicott City, Maryland, Pace studied at the North American College in Rome, where he was ordained in 1885. In 1886 he earned a doctorate in sacred theology at the same institution. After being selected to serve on the faculty at Catholic University, he returned to Europe to study at the University of Leipzig, where he worked with pioneering experimental psychologist Wilhelm Wundt. Pace served as professor of psychology from 1891-1894, and of philosophy from 1894-1935. He served as the founder and Dean of the University’s School of Philosophy, and as vice rector of the University from 1925-1936.

His importance to the Department of Education at the University begins with his founding of the Institute of Pedagogy. Pace had been concerned about meeting the instructional needs of the various schools of the University, and with teacher preparation for the country’s Catholic secondary schools. In 1902, the University’s Trustees approved the establishment of an Institute of Pedagogy, initially located at St. Francis Xavier Hall in New York City. The Institute enrolled 166 students when it first opened in 1902. By 1908, the Trustees approved the establishment of a University-based Department of Education. 

Rev. Thomas Shields (1862-1921) was the son of Irish immigrants and, like Pace, trained in the relatively new discipline of psychology. Shields studied at St. Francis Seminary in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and St. Thomas Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. After his ordination in 1891, Shields entered the doctoral program in psychology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. His dissertation, “The Effect of Odors Upon the Blood Flow” became an influential work in his field. He became an instructor in psychology at Catholic University in 1902. But his attention and research rapidly shifted to education. In 1905, he designed correspondence courses and institutes for teaching sisters staffing the growing Catholic school system across the country.  After the Trustees approved the establishment of a Department of Education in 1908, Shields set up and chaired the new unit. He founded the Catholic Educational Review in 1910, and began publishing articles and books under the Catholic Education Press, which he also founded. He founded and served as Dean of the Catholic Sisters College in 1911, organizing and running summer institutes for women religious at the University. Finally, the Program of Affiliation Shields created in 1912 sought to create a set of what we would today call best practices to which affiliate members—Catholic high schools and colleges—would adhere. 

Shields suffered numerous health problems, though by fall 1919 he was teaching 350 students  at the University, Catholic Sisters College, and neighboring Trinity College. He died in 1921 at the age of 59. 

Sources:

John J. Convey, Professor of Education, “The Catholic University Department of Education, 1908-2021 (Unpublished manuscript, Catholic University of America Archives, 2021), Special Collections, The Catholic University of America, 1-2.

Patricia DeFerrari, "Shields, Thomas (1861-1921)" in Michael Glazier, Thomas J. Shelley, eds., The Encyclopedia of American Catholic History, 1294.