Malcolm Shepherd Knowles (August 24, 1913 – November 27, 1997) was an American adult educator, famous for the adoption of the theory of andragogy—initially a term coined by the German teacher Alexander Kapp.
Shortly afterwards, he worked with the National Youth Administration in Massachusetts, and was married to Hulda Fornell, whom he met while studying at Harvard.
In 1940, he assumed the position of Director of Adult Education at the Boston YMCA until he was drafted into the United States Navy in 1943.
From 1951 to 1959 he served as executive director of the Adult Education Association of the USA and pursued his PhD at the University of Chicago.
He became a member of the faculty of Education at North Carolina State University in 1974 to complete his final four years of academic work prior to retirement.