Samuel A. Kirk, the pioneer and leader of special education for the last 50 years, died July 21 of heart failure. He was 91.

Kirk devised tests for and wrote extensively about early education for children, specifically those with learning disabilities. He was also influential in passing federal legislation in that field.

"He was the best politician I saw in getting legislation done," said James Chalfant, professor of special education and rehabilitation and a former doctoral student of Kirk's in the 1960s.

"Sam could charm birds out of trees. He was very persuasive when he talked," Chalfant said.

Jeanne McCarthy, also a doctoral student of Kirk's, said, "He was a worldwide-recognized leader in special education and in all areas of disabilities."

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy sent Kirk, along with a five-man task force, to the Soviet Union to study their programs for mentally retarded children.

That same year, he became the first recipient of the International Award in Mental Retardation from the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation.

"He provided such leadership that the field of special education would not have one-tenth of its progress without him," McCarthy said.

Then, in 1964, Kennedy appointed him the first director of the Division of Handicapped Children and Youth under the U.S. Office of Education, now the U.S. Department of Education.

Kirk's efforts with learning disabilities led to the 1969 Learning Disabilities Act that defined learning disabilities and provided funds to send handicapped children to public schools.

In his research, he discovered that early education can increase intelligence, a discovery which led to the creation of Head Start, a federally funded program that provides educational, health and social services to impoverished preschoolers.

"There was no aspect of special education that he did not make a major impact on," McCarthy said.

He published numerous articles and books including the text, Educating Exceptional Children in 1962, which is in its seventh edition, she said.

Chalfant said, "Sam, in my opinion, was one of the most brilliant individuals I've met in terms of being a thinker and a visionary for the future."

Kirk earned his bachelor's degree in psychology in 1929 and his master's in experimental physiological and clinical psychology, both from the University of Chicago.

In 1935 he earned his doctorate in physiological and clinical psychology from the University of Michigan.

He taught as a professor of special education at the University of Arizona from 1968 to 1985 and was also a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois. He was also director of the Division of Education for Exceptional Children from 1935 to 1947.

He was a consultant and adviser in Germany in 1950 and 1951, a lecturer for the National Broadcasting Corporation in Japan in 1965 and a consultant to the government of Brazil in 1979.

Kirk is survived by his wife, Winifred Day Kirk, a former speech and hearing professor at the UA; his son Jerome of Dana Point, Calif.; daughter, Lorraine Kirk of Laguna Beach, Calif.; sisters Hannah K. Wilson of Tucson and Margie Haddad of Winnipeg, Manitoba; brother, Victor Alfred Kirk of Southern California; and a granddaughter.

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