David Kingsley Brace

A portrait photograph of David Kingsley Brace, Ph.D.David Kingsley Brace was born on September 4, 1891, in Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1915 he received his B.A. degree from Reed College in Portland, Oregon. At Teachers College, Columbia University, he received an M.A. degree in 1921 and a Ph.D. in 1927. Brace spent four years (1916-1920) in China as the director of physical education for the Chihli Provincial Higher Normal College, Paotingfu, and Tsing Hua College, Peking. From 1920 to 1926 he taught at Columbia University. In 1926 Brace moved to the University of Texas and established the Department of Physical and Health Education, of which he was chairman from 1926 to 1958. Brace developed the Brace Motor Ability Test to test physical skills, one of the first tests to use modern scientific methods. In 1915 his study The Family and Socialized Play won the Municipal League Prize in Portland, Oregon. In 1924 he published the first achievement tests for football and basketball. Brace died in Austin, Texas on December 27, 1971