Today’s Project 100 entry is on Ken Wooden, one of the most important alumni in the history of Glassboro State College and Rowan University.  I made contact with him earlier this year, but he was in the midst of a battle with cancer that claimed his life on July 3, 2023.  While we never got to do a formal interview, I did learn that he greatly valued his time at Glassboro State and the mentorship provided to him by Sidney Kessler.  Ken’s accomplishments and influence were such that I knew that I must find a way to include his story in Project 100 despite his passing.  With the help of his family members who have reviewed this entry, I have been able to do so.  The biographical section that follows is long, and yet I could have included so much more.  In addition to the voluminous public records available on Ken, I was fortunate to have some personal accounts as well, including an excerpt from Ken’s own memoir and a lengthy account from Sidney Kessler who discussed his former student at length in his unpublished memoir (which astute readers will remember formed the basis of Memory #6).  In fact, it was from Dr. Kessler’s work that I originally learned that Ken had attended Glassboro State and studied history.  

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Kenneth Wooden was born on October 18, 1935, and he grew up in a working-class neighborhood in a row house in Burlington, New Jersey.  He lived with his mother, father, and three brothers and graduated from Burlington City High School in 1954.  He then joined the United States Army and served in the Korean War in the 101^st Airborne.  His mother died in 1956 while he was stationed in Korea.  After he finished serving in the war, he married his girlfriend, Martha Braun, with whom he later had three daughters and one son. 

Around the same time, and through the support of his wife who was a registered nurse, he began to study history and education at Glassboro State Teacher’s College.  In his junior year, he was President of the social studies club, Current Affairs in Education (C.A.F.E.), during one of that club’s most active and productive periods.  That year, through the leadership of Harold Wilson and new faculty member Marius Livingston, the Social Studies Department and C.A.F.E. organized not only its traditional Election Week activities but sponsored an all-day event entitled: “The World Crisis of the Sixties, A Symposium on Problems in Four Regions of the World.”  The Department estimated attendance at this major event at 1300, including students, faculty, alumni, and community members from southern New Jersey.  Ken Wooden was one of the panelists responding to the address by Dr. C. Edward Beeby, New Zealand ambassador to France, entitled “The Commonwealth Concept – Nationalism’s Solution?”  Ken was joined on the panel by several others, including Raymond E. Jones of British Consulate General in Philadelphia and Satish D. Kelelkar, Head of the Department of Information for the Embassy of India.  Other major addresses during the day included: “The Middle East in Transition” by Dr. Abdul Majid Abbass, Visiting Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at American University, “Europe and the Problem of Germany,” by Dr. Hans Reimer, Education Chairman for West Germany, and “The Role of the New China” by Dr. Theodore Hsi-en, Chairman of the Department of Asiatic Studies at the University of Southern California.

After Ken graduated in 1962, he took a position teaching history.  During this time, however, he had the good fortune to be aided in his desire to do work that might have a broader impact and involve the research skills he had learned at Glassboro State.  In making this transition, he had the great fortune to be aided by one of America’s most famous people (read on to find out who!). 

It is hard to summarize Ken’s accomplishments after he left teaching.  Here are just some of the highlights.  In any event, he left teaching and, after working for members of Congress, became a freelance investigative reporter.  He published for a wide variety of newspapers while also holding various other positions from time to time, including serving as the Executive Director of the Institute for Advanced Politics in Princeton, New Jersey.  In that capacity, in 1972, he wrote an op-ed for the New York Times entitled “Jersey and the Prisoners of Innocence,” which exposed how much lack of education and literacy correlated with imprisonment.  He noted that most prisoners read at a third-grade level and that 90% of juveniles placed in prisons, reform schools, and punitive juvenile facilities had committed no criminal offense.  This editorial ended up being the beginning of a multi-year research project that saw Ken visit juvenile facilities in 32 states, culminating with the 1976 publication of Weeping in the Playtime of Others: America’s Incarcerated Children, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

Ken wasn’t done.  He was nominated for a second Pulitzer Prize for his next big project.  “Untold Horrors – The Children of Jonestown” was his seven-part series for the Chicago Sun-Times on the deaths of nearly three hundred children at Jonestown, the remote headquarters of the cult led by American Jim Jones in Guyana.  The series was carried in newspapers all over the United States, and, in 1980, Ken expanded his reporting and published a book on the subject called The Children of Jonestown.

During his time as a freelance reporter, one of his major sources of his income was speaking for honorariums at various colleges and universities, over 150 in the end.  During these trips, he conducted research with incarcerated child rapists and child murderers.  After a lecture at Indiana State University, one of the audience members, a police chief, offered to show him some materials that had been confiscated during a recent arrest of a child pornographer.  There came across a magazine for pedophiles with a section entitled “The Lure of the Month.”  That month’s lure happened to be soap crayons, which Ken had recently purchased for his own daughters.  From that moment on, he dedicated himself to helping identify the danger of child pedophiles and their “lures.”  Among the many writings he produced on this subject were the article “How Sexual Predators Lure Our Children” in Reader’s Digest and the book Think First & Stay Safe Parent Guide, published by Child Lures Prevention, a foundation that he founded and which he continued to run as President Emeritus with his daughters until his recent passing. 

Throughout all of this time, Ken had been regularly appearing both on television and before Congress to testify about the dangers posed to children.  In 1981, the popular radio host and best-selling author Studs Terkel, whose interviews inspired Project 100, wrote that “I think Ken Wooden is the most perceptive and compassionate chronicler of the dilemma of the troubled young in our society. He impressed me in his personal odyssey and his reflection as much as any guest I’d ever had on my radio programs.”  60 Minutes and 20/20 were among the most important television shows that featured his research.  The appearance that probably had the greatest impact was when he appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1988.  After his appearance, the show was flooded with calls requesting materials related to Ken’s Work. At 4:23pm alone, over 1,000 people attempted to call, overwhelming the normally sound network of the popular show.

This entry would never end if I truly chronicled all of Ken’s work for child safety, but let me end by simply listing some of the awards he won, including an Emmy (from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for “Smart Choices/Safe Kids: A Child Lures Prevention Town Hall”), the Kenneth David Kaunda Award for Humanism (the United Nations), the Juvenile Justice Award (The White House in conjunction with The Children’s Express), and a special award for “Distinguished Contributions to the Cause of Child Advocacy”( by the American Psychological Association).  According to his family, Ken’s favorite award was the Giraffe Heroes Award for “sticking one’s neck out.” Glassboro State College has honored him twice, naming him a Distinguished Alumnus in 1979 and then awarding him an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities in 1982.

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Excerpt from Kenneth Wooden’s Memoir “Undying Determination”

My brother, Carl, (whom everyone called Skip) and I were the two youngest in a family of four boys. Growing up in the little river town of Burlington, New Jersey during the Great Depression of the 1930’s, Skip became my mentor and best friend. We shared the same bed in a small second story row house. Many nights Skip would tell me endless stories about history and current events and ask me probing questions my teachers didn’t brother to ask a kid whose IQ was 78. Questions like, “Who is our President?” “FDR.” “Who is our Vice President?” I don’t know.” “It’s Harry Truman.” Which President crossed the Delaware not far from our town? George Washington. “Where is Canada? England, Korea?” – “I don’t know.” I’ll show you on a world map.” And on and on….Where is….? Who is?......When?...... Why?....How?” Endless questions in that dark little bedroom. Skip was my best teacher - save Miss Hazel Holland who painstakingly corrected an embarrassing and crippling speech impediment I suffered with until 7th Grade. Up until age 12, I was mimicked and bullied with the nickname, “too, four, tick, yake, yenny,” (2468kenny) but I was never belittled like that by my brother. Looking back with fond memories, on those early years, I remember my brother as a gifted teacher who had an intellectual presence and a very keen mind. On an unforgettable day that changed my life forever, Skip took me to the Burlington City Public Library. I was seven and Skip was ten as he led me up winding iron stairs to where old books designed for research purposes were kept from the general public. Books so old they could not be checked out. He pointed to a book entitled, The History of Burlington and informed me that our Dad’s uncle, William E. Schermerhorn, had written that book on the shelf before my very eyes! I was mesmerized and couldn’t take my eyes off it: Nor, could I forget that we had a family member who wrote a book, kept in a special place within our city’s library, a historical landmark chartered by the King of England, in 1675. Though I could barely read and never checked out any books, I would still visit the library and just stare at my grand uncle’s published work. When I was older, serving newspapers, I’d glance at the old stone stairs leading up to the stately, white double doors of our library on Union Street and feel a sense of tremendous family pride. I still do. Fifty years later, I donated and placed on the shelves of that same library, three copies of my own published books.

From Sidney Kessler’s Unpublished Memoir

The memory of individual students faded unless they were outstanding… I initiated a seminar on Roosevelt’s New Deal.  This consisted of a small group of history majors who would work on a senior research project as a preparation for a Master of Arts thesis.  Ken Wooden enrolled and impressed me.  Ken was older than most of his peers.  He had the broken nose of a boxer, a high-pitched voice and an eagerness to learn that belied his looks.  A judge gave him a choice:  go to jail for car theft or join the army.  Ken chose the latter and fought in Korea.  He talked freely about how his high school sweetheart waited, helped him finish high school, and married him.  It was clear then that Ken was semi-literate.  He kept a dictionary by his side.  Ken had a long commute to college and worked at night. I arranged my spare time so that we could do research together in the library.  One of the highlights of the course was a class trip to the Roosevelt home in Hyde Park, New York. By chance, Mrs. Roosevelt was giving a foreign dignitary a guided tour.  In a casual remark, I turned to Ken and said: “You know, Ken, no one has written much about Louis Howe, FDR’s press secretary who helped his political career in New York.  If he were not elected Governor, he would not have been nominated for the Presidency in 1932.  Besides, there is Mrs. Roosevelt and maybe you could write to her.”  Ken nodded in agreement.

When Ken graduated, his mother cried for joy as my mother had done for me.  Mrs. Wooden worked in textiles mills at the age of 11.  Ken’s father was a laborer in chemical plants.  Each had lost a father to industrial accidents, on a painting scaffold and anthracite mine.  I was proud to be their son’s teacher.  Waves of freshmen became seniors and left college.  Twenty years went by until I heard the name Kenneth Wooden again.  Walter Cronkite was praising Ken for his testimony to a congressional committee discussing abused children.  I almost fell out of my chair.  Was this MY Kenny?  I contacted the college alumni and soon I was visiting Ken in his home.  I learned that after he had graduated, he taught history for a time, and, through contacts, worked for Congressmen, and became a successful investigative reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times.  In that capacity, he wrote an expose of the wretched treatment of runaway children in the nation’s institutions.  Many of them served as human guinea pigs for drug companies.  Ken was able to initiate reforms in several states.  His book, Weeping in the Playtime of Others, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.  His report to Congress that I saw concerned the 1978 tragedy of Jonestown, where 276 children were murdered in an act of cult genocide….

After months of writing to former Governors, Congressmen, school superintendents, journalists, and celebrities… my nomination was accepted and the great day arrived… On my recommendation, Kenny Wooden, a high school dropout and reformed car thief, was about to receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Humanity from Glassboro State College….

“Kenny,” I asked after the honorary doctorate was awarded, “who would have dreamed you would be so successful? Who gets the credit?”

“You do!” he replied while I gasped.  “You told me to contact Mrs. Roosevelt about Louis Howe.  She was impressed by my research as you were, and she guided me.”  Kenny then inscribed his first book, Weeping, “To Sid Kessler. Thanks for a great course during my education at Glassboro.”  He inscribed his second book, Children of Jonestown, to my children, Perry and Sybil.

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This is part of the Department of History’s “Project 100,” the collection and sharing of one hundred memories by Glassboro State College and Rowan University alumni and staff.  One memory will be released per day in the 100 days leading up to October 20, 2023, the date of a reunion celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the founding of Glassboro Normal School, later Glassboro State College, and now Rowan University.  The reunion will take place at 7pm at the Summit City Farm and Winery in Glassboro, New Jersey.  Registration for the reunion will be open from July 11^th and will remain open until the venue reaches its 100-person capacity (or October 13^th if capacity never reached).  We do anticipate that the reunion will sell out, so please register as soon as possible by visiting the Alumni Office’s registration page here:  alumni.rowan.edu/historyreunion2023.

You can also find the up-to-date set of Project 100 memories on the Department of History’s webpage.  William Carrigan arranged, interviewed, transcribed and/or edited these memories.  Laurie Lahey proofread and helped edit the final versions.  If you wish to share your own memories, please email Dr. Carrigan at carrigan@rowan.edu.  Alumni with Facebook accounts are encouraged to join the RU/GSC History Alumni group here:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/251485937221524.