Harold Gray Shane; Prolific Writer, Education Dean

Harold Gray Shane, who wrote about 500 pamphlets, scripts and books such as the popular “The New Baby” and “The Twins,” has died. He was 78.

Shane, the former dean of the Indiana University School of Education, died Monday in Bloomington, Ind.

The versatile writer turned out everything from children’s readers to boat-handling manuals for Navy sailors to futuristic educational tomes such as his 1987 “Teaching and Learning in a Microelectronic Age.” He once estimated that his writings had reached 1 billion people.

Shane’s book “The New Baby,” which he and his late wife, Ruth, wrote in 1948 about their son, Michael, sold more than 25 million copies. Their 1955 book, “The Twins,” detailed the upbringing of their triplet daughters, Susan, Pat and Ann. It was rewritten about twins at the request of the publisher, Simon & Schuster, because twins are more common.

A native of Milwaukee, Shane was educated at the University of Wisconsin and Ohio State University. He wrote regularly from the time he was a teen-ager. He began his career in education as an elementary school teacher in Cincinnati, became superintendent of schools in Winnetka, Ill., and later taught for 10 years at Northwestern University.

In 1959 he moved to Indiana University, where he served as dean of education until 1965, when he switched to teaching there.

Shane is survived by his second wife, Catherine, and four children.