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Carol Aronovici (1881-1957) was a Romanian-American pioneer in the field of urban planning. He authored several books, lectured widely, and taught the first class in city planning in an American university.

Born in Romania, Aronovici came to the United States in 1900 or 1901. He is said to have been "kicked out of his native Romania in his late teens for advocating peasants’ rights." He received a B.A. and M.A. from Cornell University in 1905 and 1906, then earned a Ph.D. from Brown University in 1911. He was soon writing reports on urban conditions in Rhode Island and Connecticut, including "The Newport Survey of Social Problems" in 1912 and "Housing Conditions in New Haven" in 1913, as well as "Knowing One's Small Own Community: Suggestions for Social Surveys of Small Cities or Towns" (American Unitarian Association). By 1914, he was General Secretary of the Suburban Planning Commission in Philadelphia and a major contributor to the book Housing and Town Planning (American Academy of Political and Social Science).

After giving a series of lectures in St. Paul in 1916, he was hired as the director of social services for the Wilder Foundation there.