NASW Foundation National Programs

NASW Social Work Pioneers^®

Charles L. Schottland (1906 - 1995)

Schottland was born in Chicago. He received a BA degree from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1927, Graduate School Social Work in the New York School of Social Work 1928-1929, Social Work certificate, 1929. He graduated from the University of Southern California Law School in 1933.

Schottland had a long and distinguished career in higher education, social welfare programs and social security. He was best known for his work with the Social Security Administration as commissioner of social security, appointed by President Eisenhower in 1954. He was well known for his work in this area and for the first visit to the Soviet Union when exchanges were permitted in the early 50's.

In 1941 he was appointed as assistant chief of the United States Children's Bureau. Following World War II, he was assistant director of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration for refugees and displaced persons in Germany. During the war he was on the staff of General Eisenhower (SHAEF) and lieutenant colonel in charge of the section dealing with displaced persons. For his work in the care and repatriation of five and a half million displaced persons, he was decorated by the governments of France, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Greece, and the Netherlands.

Governor Earl Warren appointed Schottland Director of the California Department of Social Welfare from 1950 to 1954. From 1959-1979, he was on the faculty at Brandeis University, where he was dean of the Florence Heller Graduate School for Advanced Study and Social Welfare and also served as president of the University for three years.

He was past president of the national conference of social welfare and the International Council on Social Welfare. He was chairman of the 1981 Arizona White House conference on aging. He is past chairman of the Arizona Governor's Council on Aging; past president of the National Senior Citizen Law Center; past president of the American Society on Aging; Board member of the Pima Counsel on Aging; and the National Council on Aging. He is a member of NASW and the California bar.

Charles Schottland is the author of three books and over 130 published articles. He has lectured in more than 40 universities and is a recipient of seven honorary degrees.