History and Past Editors

Reclaiming Our History: The NCDA Journal Editors (1911-2011)

Mark Pope
University of Missouri - Saint Louis

Published as: Pope, M. (2008). Reclaiming our history: The NCDA journal editors (1911-2011). The Career Development Quarterly, 56, 291-293.

As part of some other historical research I am conducting, I developed a list of all the editors of the journal of the National Career Development Association - The Career Development Quarterly - and thought it would be a valuable archival piece to include here for the historians of our profession in my last issue as editor of our journal.

In 1911, the progenitor of CDQ - the Vocational Guidance News-Letter - was founded under the editorship of Frederick J. Allen. From that beginning, the listing below identifies the chronology of the changes in The Career Development Quarterly with both journal names and journal editors.

In 1952, the Personnel and Guidance Journal (PGJ, now called the Journal of Counseling & Development) became the journal of the new American Personnel and Guidance Association (APGA, now American Counseling Association), with the National Vocational Guidance Association (NVGA, now National Career Development Association) as one of it's four founding divisions. Through an agreement between APGA and NVGA, the NVGA journal (then called Occupations: The Vocational Guidance Journal) along with it's editor (William D. Wilkins), editorial board, and staff became the operational foundation of the new Personnel and Guidance Journal. This was a political decision made to support the new professional association and the mission of that new PGJ broadened.

The 1952 NVGA Board of Directors, however, wanted to also maintain it's own journal, a journal devoted to career counseling and career development. The Vocational Guidance Quarterly (VGQ) was a direct descendant of and arose from Occupations. VGQ took over the historical mission and purpose of Occupations, while the operations side of the journal was transferred to the new APGA. A new editor was selected for VGQ (Max F. Baer, who was also serving as NVGA President) along with an editorial board that included many of the editorial board members from Occupations, and the NVGA journal continued to publish without missing an issue.

The complicating factor in all this is that, although the new APGA journal continued the volume numbers of Occupations, beginning with volume 31 (Ginter, 2002), it has not continued the history, mission, and purpose nor does it even always acknowledge it's lineage. In fact, as recently as 2006 in volume 84, number 2 of the Journal of Counseling & Development (JCD), the historical listing of editors of that journal (p. 255) only begins with William D. Wilkins in 1952.

We feel strongly that The Career Development Quarterly (CDQ) must reclaim it's past and acknowledge the historical contributions of all of it's previous editors. We do not quibble with the dual branched heritage of JCD and CDQ and would encourage JCD to acknowledge it's historic roots, but we are also clear about the lineage of our journal. Our current volume number may be only 56, but we know the historical reality is much different and so we publish here the list of the editors of the journal of NCDA - The Career Development Quarterly - from it's true and proper historic beginning, 1911.

Further, there is precedent to renumber journal volumes downward -- witness the combining of the two major school counseling journals. After publishing 735 manuscripts in the Elementary School Guidance and Counseling (volume 31) and 850 in the School Counselor (volume 44), the two journals merged in 1997 to form Professional School Counseling, volume 1. Although the history is not lost, it is much more difficult to decipher.

Also, rarely have journals retrieved their original volume numbering schema and we are not proposing this. Although that might be appropriate here, we feel that it would be potentially confusing for our profession and for other readers of our journal in the years to come. We are, however, reclaiming our history and lineage and acknowledging the contributions of our previous editors to the knowledge of our field from 1911 to the present time.

Finally, this is the last issue of my last volume as CDQ editor as I have finished my term. I am passing on the editorship of The Career Development Quarterly to Professor Jerry Trusty of Pennsylvania State University. He will be an outstanding editor of our journal.

Thank you for allowing me to have been both the principal guide and guardian of this important journal for these last three years. It has truly been a labor of love.

Mark Pope, Editor (2005-2008)

References

Author. (2006). Former editors of JCD. Journal of Counseling & Development, 84, 255.

Gintner, E. J. (2002). Journal of Counseling & Development (JCD) and counseling's interwoven nature: Achieving a more complete understanding of the present through "historization" (musings of an exiting editor -- an editorial postscript). Journal of Counseling & Development, 80, 219-222.

Roots of the National Career Development Association (#4): The Career Development Quarterly

Read this article published in the NCDA web magazine, Career Convergence, as part of series during our 100th anniversary celebration.  This includes a free virtual edition of CDQ which republished the eight most cited articles published in this journal during the past century.

NCDA Journal Editors

(chronological order in parentheses)

1911-1915 Vocational Guidance News-Letter
1911-1915 Frederick J. Allen (1)
1915-1918 Vocational Guidance Bulletin
1915-1918 W. Carson Ryan, Jr. (2)
1918 Roy W. Kelly (3)
(Publication suspended during World War I)
1921-1924 The National Vocational Guidance Association Bulletin
1921-1923 Anne S. Davis (4)
1923-1924 Frederick J. Allen (5)
1924-1933 The Vocational Guidance Magazine
1924-1927 Frederick J. Allen (5)
1933-1944 Occupations: The Vocational Guidance Magazine
1927-1937 Fred C. Smith (6)
1944-1952 Occupations: The Vocational Guidance Journal
1937-1950 Harry Dexter Kitson (7)
1950-1951 Campbell B. Beard (8)
1951-1952 William D. Wilkins (9)
1952-1986 The Vocational Guidance Quarterly
1952-1953 Max F. Baer (10)
1953-1954 Marguerite W. Zapoleon (11)
1954-1955 Clarence W. Failor (12)
1955-1961 Delmont K. Byrn (13)
1961-1962 Martin Hamburger (14)
1962-1970 Norman C. Gysbers (15)
1970-1976 Daniel Sinick (16)
1976-1982 Edwin A. Whitfield (17)
1986- The Career Development Quarterly
1982-1988 David A. Jepsen (18)
1988-1991 Paul R. Salomone (19)
1991-1998 Mark L. Savickas (20)
1998-2003 Spencer G. Niles (21)
2003-2005 Ellen Piel Cook (22)
2005-2008 Mark Pope (23)
2008-2013 Jerry Trusty (24)
2014-2021 Paul J. Hartung (25)
2021-2023 Mei Tang (26)
2023-          Melissa Gibbons (27)