Page, Ellis Batten 1924–2005

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born April 29, 1924, in San Diego, CA; died of pneumonia May 17, 2005, in McLean, VA. Psychologist, educator, and author. Page was a retired Duke University professor who was known for developing a computer program to grade student essays. After serving in the Marine Corps during World War II, he graduated from Pomona College in 1947. While working as a high school teacher, he attended graduate school at San Diego State University and earned an M.A. in 1955; he then went to the University of California at Los Angeles to complete his Ed.D. in 1958. During the late 1950s he was director of guidance and testing at Eastern Michigan University. Specializing in educational psychology, he next taught education and psychology at Texas Woman's University, where he was also dean of the College of Education from 1960 to 1962. During the 1960s, Page was a professor at the University of Connecticut, and he directed the Bureau of Educational Research and Service there from 1962 to 1970. He remained at Connecticut until 1979, when he joined the Duke University faculty as a professor of educational psychology and research in 1979, retiring as professor emeritus in 2004. One of Page's most notable accomplishments was his computer programming work. Interested in standardized testing and evaluation, he began developing computer programs back in the 1960s, at a time when such applications were not even imagined by most people. While programmers focused mostly on numerical calculations, Page hoped to develop ways of grading written essays, and he had success in a program called Project Essay Grade, which was written in FORTRAN. He continued to work on and improve the program over the years, and in the 1990s created TruJudge, which is currently used by a variety of schools and universities. In 1993, he also founded and became president of TruJudge, Inc. Among his other written works, Page published a book on his work, with Dieter H. Paulus, called The Analysis of Essays by Computer (1968).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Chicago Tribune, May 24, 2005, section 3, p. 9.

New York Times, May 23, 2005, p. A17.

Washington Post, May 21, 2005, p. B7.