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Regarded as an eminent scholar, teacher and humanist, Professor Howard B. Woolston was one of the ranking sociologists of his day. He was an expert in urban sociology and the sociology of social movements, as well as group behavior, prostitution, and wage investigation.

Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, April 22, 1876, Woolston received his A.B. from Yale in 1898, and was a fellow at Chicago, receiving his S.T.B. in 1901. He was a Harvard fellow and received his A.M. in 1902, studied in Paris and Berlin the following two years, returning to receive his Ph.D. from Columbia in 1909. He began teaching as an Instructor at City College of New York in 1909, leaving as a professor of sociology and statistics in 1918. Beginning in 1919 he served as Professor of Sociology at the University of Washington, retiring in 1947 as professor emeritus and resident consultant. He served as an investigator for The Bureau of Social Hygiene, and was Assistant Editor of the American Sociological Review from 1938-40. He was decorated in the Order of St. Sava, Serbia, for his relief work during World War I. He was a member of The American Sociological Society and the Pacific Sociological Society.