Katherine Golden Bitting (1869-1937) earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Purdue in 1892, and became an instructor soon after graduating. She married Arvill Wayne Bitting, a professor of veterinary science, and they went on to take jobs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Katherine, a microanalyst in the chemistry division, gained expertise on food preservation and related topics, authoring nearly fifty pamphlets in that subject area. Her 4,346 volume collection of gastronomic literature from the fifteenth through twentieth centuries now resides at the Library of Congress’ Rare Books and Special Collections Division.
Susan Bulkeley Butler graduated from Purdue in 1965 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Management from the Krannert School of Management. The following year, she joined Arthur Andersen & Co., one of the then Big 8 Accounting firms, as the first professional female employee. Butler went on to become the Managing Partner of the Office of the CEO for Andersen Consulting/Accenture, until her retirement from Accenture in 2002. Butler, who has established a reputation as a "benefactor extraordinaire" for Purdue, holds an honorary doctorate from the Krannert School of Management, where she has an endowed chair and a scholarship for women student leaders. A leading member of the Women for Purdue, a group that is dedicated to women’s leadership giving, she donated $3.65 million in order to establish the Institute of Leadership Excellence in Discovery Park, as well as an endowed chair. Butler has served on the Purdue Research Foundation Board, the Dean’s Advisory Council at Krannert, and is past president of the university's President's Council. She was presented with the Business Leadership Award from the Krannert School in 2004. In 2006, Butler was appointed by Governor Mitch Daniels to Purdue’s Board of Trustees, and participated in selecting a successor to President Martin Jischke, Dr. France Cordova. Butler’s generous gift of $1 million to the Purdue University Libraries recently established the Susan Bulkeley Butler Women’s Archives, which will document the lives and accomplishments of women affiliated with Purdue University and the state of Indiana.
Barbara Cook came to Purdue in 1956 as a counselor in the Office of the Dean of Women. One of her responsibilities in that capacity involved serving as an advisor to the Mortar Board, a senior-student honor society over which she presided for nearly thirty years. Cook also served as director of the Placement Service for Women, assistant and associate Dean of Women, associate Dean of Students, and, from 1980-1987, Dean of Students. She was also a lecturer in the School of Education, and a professor of education from 1987-1989. Nationally recognized for her efforts in promoting career opportunities for women, Cook served in several positions within the organization that is currently known as the National Association for Women in Education. She is also the recipient of numerous awards for her work, including the Helen B. Schleman Gold Medallion for Distinguished Contributions to Purdue University, the Dean Beverley Stone Award for Personal Counseling Contributions, and the Distinguished Lifetime Mortar Board Member Award. Since her retirement in 1989, Barbara Cook has been an active member of the Lafayette community and involved with many organizations, including the Salvation Army, Greater Lafayette YWCA, West Lafayette Redevelopment Commission, and the Indiana Governor’s Commission for Women. In 2004, a sculpture entitled “When Dreams Dance” was dedicated to Cook and her late colleague and friend, Beverley Stone. It is located in between Schleman and Hovde Halls. Today, the current chapter of the Purdue Mortar Board is named in Cook’s honor, who advised the group from 1956-1986.
France Córdova is the 11th President of Purdue University. Córdova came to Purdue from the University of California, where was chancellor from 2002 – 2007. After earning a Ph.D. in Physics from Cal Tech in 1979, Cordova became a member of the Space Astronomy and Astrophysics Group at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Her work at NASA began in 1993, where she served as the primary scientific advisor to the NASA administrator. Her scientific contributions, which involve research in the areas of observational and experimental astrophysics, multi-spectral research on X-ray and gamma ray sources, and space borne instrumentation, have resulted in more than 150 published scientific papers and reports. Córdova, who is the award winning author of “The Women of Santo Domingo,” a work of fiction based on her anthropological research in Mexico during the late 1960s, has also worked as a writer and editor for the Los Angeles Times News Service and as a guest editor for Mademoiselle magazine. Córdova pursued her interest in astrophysics shortly after earning a degree in English from Stanford University. She has been named on of “America’s 100 Brightest Scientists Under 40” by Science Digest magazine and also was named one of the “100 Most Influential Hispanics” by Hispanic Business Magazine. She is the youngest and first person ever to become a chief scientist at NASA, and the first woman to become President at Purdue.
Curiel graduated from Purdue in 1976 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Radio, TV and Film. She went on to become a writer-producer for ABC news, then a journalist for the New York Times. From 1993-1997, Curiel worked as a presidential speechwriter at the White House during the Clinton Administration. She then served as the United States Ambassador to Belize from 1997-2001. Currently, she is one of sixteen members on the editorial board for The New York Times, writing primarily on New York politics and policies.
Amelia Earhart (1897-1937), famed woman aviation pioneer most well-known for her solo flights across the Atlantic, joined the faculty of Purdue in the fall of 1935 as a counselor in the study of careers for women and an advisor in aeronautics. She was recruited by President Edward C. Elliott during the Fourth Annual Conference on Women’s Problems, where she spoke on women’s role in the future of aviation. Elliot, an ardent supporter of women’s educational rights, felt that Earhart could “find . . . the eventual solution to the problem of careers for women.” As a visiting professor, much of Earhart’s time was devoted to conferences with women students and lecturing around campus. In July 1936, Amelia acquired a new Lockheed Electra airplane she called her “Flying Laboratory,” purchased with funds from the Purdue Research Foundation. With her new airplane, Amelia began planning a world flight at the equator, which commenced in 1937. In July of that year, Earhart’s plane was declared missing en route from New Guinea to Howland Island, a small island which lies in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Carol A. Ecker (b. 1940) graduated from the School of Veterinary Medicine in 1964, one of the first of two women graduates in the school. Her success as a student carried over into her professional life, where she became president of the Clayview Animal Clinic, owner and operator of Clayview farms, secretary-treasurer of Ecker Enterprises and owner of Marcell’s Pet Salon. Ecker also helped establish the Purdue Veterinary Alumni Association, where she served as secretary-treasurer. She later went on to serve on the Dean’s Advisory Council of the School of Veterinary Medicine, and in 1988, became a member of the Purdue Board of Trustees. In addition to being involved in several professional organizations, Ecker also intitiated the Twin City Therapy animal bonding program, and has remained active on the Purdue campus in a number of student and career-oriented programs.
Eliza Hawkins Fowler was Purdue’s first major women benefactor. In 1901, she gave $70,000 in funding to the University for construction of the first assembly hall, the largest single gift to the University since John Purdue’s contribution in 1869. Fowler Hall became a “campus showcase,” used for orientations, convocations, lectures, and the first indoor commencement exercises. Although it was demolished in 1954 in order to make room for a campus conference center, the tradition of Fowler Hall lives on in the Stewart Center auditorium which bears Eliza Fowler’s name, located in almost the same location as the original structure.
Lillian Moller Gilbreth, widely known as the “Mother of Modern Management,” came to Purdue in 1935 as a visiting professor at Purdue’s School of Industrial Engineering. Already a prominent industrial engineer, author, and widowed mother of twelve children, Gilbreth was hired by President Elliott with the intention of “introducing new forces for the . . . effective education of young women.” Gilbreth lived on campus in the women’s residence halls during her lecturing and consulting periods at Purdue, and helped improve the motion study labs on campus, making them more accessible to the local agricultural industry. Upon her retirement in 1948, she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Industrial Psychology degree. She left the Gilbreth Engineering Library to Purdue University, a collection consisting of approximately 1500 volumes plus research notes relating to her husband Frank’s time and motion studies. Lillian Gilbreth also holds a distinguished place for having been named the first female member of the American Society for Mechanical Engineers in 1926.
Ivy Frances Harner, professor of Household Economics, was instrumental in establishing the home economics department at Purdue in the early 1900s. After earning a B.S. and M.S. from Kansas Agricultural College, she studied domestic science in Europe from 1904-1905 and later went on to serve as head of the Domestic Science Department of the Louisiana Industrial Institute. She came to Purdue in 1905 when President Winthrop Stone realized that Purdue should offer to women "opportunities comparable in scientific and technical value with those enjoyed by men." The 1907 Debris yearbook describes the early home economics department as a four years’ course which involves the "economical and scientific study of such subjects as food principles . . . classification of food, chemical and microscopic composition of food, application of heat to food principles, economical and nutritive value of foods . . . food preservation and adulteration and dietetics."
Sarah (Allen) Oren Haynes (1836-1907) came to Purdue in 1875 as the first female faculty member of the university. Her title, which initially was “female teacher of the university,” was changed to assistant professor of mathematics until she was appointed as a professor of botany soon after being hired. Among her undertakings, Haynes presented the university with plans for a campus orchard with which to conduct experimental work, assisted in formulating the rules of student conduct, and, in 1876, became the overseer of the first women’s literary society at Purdue. Sarah Oren and her teenage daughter, Cata, lived on campus in two rooms of the Boarding Hall (Ladies Hall) until 1878, when Oren resigned from Purdue in order to marry Wesley Haines. Among her other accomplishments, Sarah Oren also held the position of becoming the first woman state librarian for Indiana in 1873. In addition to being Indiana’s first woman state librarian and Purdue's first female faculty member, Oren was also the first faculty member, male or female, to receive a board of trustees citation in appreciation of her work for the university.
Helen Johnson came to Purdue in 1962 to spearhead Purdue’s first nursing program. In her first year at Purdue, she was able to secure outside funding, hire faculty, arrange sites for clinicals, develop a curriculum, and secure state approval for the new program. Over the next three years, she initiated nursing programs on all of Purdue’s regional campuses. By 1969, the programs had become accredited by the National League of Nursing and each had graduating classes. Johnson spent the next 18 years at Purdue continually improving upon the program which she had started. One of her most significant achievements involved obtaining a $1.3 million grant from the United States Public Health Service which funded construction of a new nursing building on the West Lafayette campus. This achievement eventually led to the department’s formation into its own school with a separate operating budget. Her strong desire for the nursing school to develop a master’s degree program propelled her to earn a doctorate in higher education in 1975. In 1979, Johnson was named head of the School of Nursing. She retired in 1980.
Callie Ann Khouri is an award-winning screenplay writer, film producer, and author. Her best known work includes the screenplay for the 1991 film Thelma and Louise and the 2002 screen adaptation of Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Khouri, a native of Kentucky, initially studied landscape architecture at Purdue in the late 1970s, and then developed an interest in drama. After continuing her studies at the Strasbourg Institute, she gained experience as an actor, theater apprentice, and waiter in Nashville, Tennessee. She has also been involved in the production of music videos for performers Robert Cray, Alice Cooper, and the Commodores, an experience which she has cited as seminal in her writing career.
Anne Mae Lutz graduated from Purdue with BS and MS degrees in Biology in 1890 and 1891. In 1932, she became one of the first women to receive an honorary doctorate from Purdue for her contributions to genetics research. Among her achievements, Lutz specialized in documenting B chromosomes in plants and was an expert in the area of chromosomes of Oenothera mutants and hybrids.
Mary Lockwood Matthews, adopted daughter of agricultural pioneer Virginia Meredith, joined the Purdue faculty in 1910 as an extension home economics instructor. In 1912, she was named head of the Department of Household Economics, which expanded to become the School of Home Economics in 1926, of which she was founding dean. Matthews was instrumental in the creation of a home economics building, constructed in 1922 and named in her honor. The School has since been described as a "strong pillar of American home economics education." Mary Matthews is also credited for the invention of "Master Mix," a concoction created in the home economics labs at Purdue which was utilized by homemakers for the quick and easy preparation of baked goods. After serving at Purdue nearly fifty years as a faculty member, Mathews retired in 1958, earning the title Dean Emeritus.
Kathryn McHale (1889-1956), known as a “Hoosier with a national reputation as a crusader for women’s rights,” served on the Board of Trustees for Purdue from 1937 – 1946. After having served as a professor of education at the University of Minnesota, Columbia University, and Goucher College in Baltimore, McHale became general director of the American Association for University Women. One of her most widely recognized achievements involved developing a vocational interest test designed to help students, particularly women, determine career paths. She also directed a study involving women’s colleges, which resulted in a publication that is considered a landmark in higher education literature. As a Purdue Board of Trustee member, McHale was one of the first to interview Frederick Hovde in 1945 in a search which resulted in his future presidency of the University.
Emma McRae (1848-1919) came to Purdue in 1887 as a professor of English literature and "Lady Principal," having had extensive experience working in high schools throughout the state. She was educated at Brookville College and received her Master of Arts degree from Wooster College (Ohio) in 1896. McRae, known affectionately on campus as "Mother McRae," served unofficially in the capacity of counselor to women students at Purdue. Upon her retirement in 1912, McRae became one of the first staff members to receive a Carnegie Foundation retirement grant. She was an active member of the National association of Teachers and the State Association of Teachers, and contributed articles on educational issues to school periodicals. Carolyn Shoemaker, the notable Purdue alumna who became Dean of Women in 1913, has attributed much her academic and professional success to the influence of "Mother" McRae.
Virginia Claypool Meredith's (1848-1936) involvement with Purdue began in 1899, while she was a speaker for the Farmers’ Institutes, offering lectures across Indiana that were aimed to educate farmers on the latest science and technology in agriculture. These lectures, along with Meredith’s unrelenting petitioning of Purdue presidents, were highly influential in paving the way for a home economics department in 1905. In addition to being a pioneer in agricultural education, organizer of the Indiana Federation of Women’s Clubs, and editor of the Breeders Gazette, Virginia Claypool Meredith also became the first woman to serve on the Board of Trustees at Purdue, a post which she held from 1921-1936. She was crowned "Queen of American Agriculture" in Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1881. The women's residence hall known as "Meredith Hall" is named in her memory.
Eulora Jennings Miller (d. 1939) holds the distinguished place amongst Purdue alumnae as the first woman to graduate from the University in 1878. As an undergraduate, she also served as the first president of the Philalethean Society, an organization "effected for the literary needs of the young ladies at Purdue." Upon earning a Bachelor's of Science degree, Eulora Miller became Purdue's first professional librarian, and continued her career in librarianship at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. She went on to study at Columbia University in New York, and gained notoriety as a dramatist, having published four plays, including Mrs. Oakley's Telephone, Tom's Fiancée, Dinner at the Club, and Die Prinzessin Barnof.
Emily Mobley, Dean of the Libraries from 1989-2004, provided oversight in moving the system towards the electronic era and pushed for growth of library collections to 2.3 million volumes. In 1997, she was awarded the Esther Ellis Norton Distinguished Professorship in Library Science. Among her accomplishments, Mobley played a crucial role in the acquisition of the addition to the Amelia Earhart Collection to Purdue’s Archives and Special Collections unit, led a two year renovation of the Humanities, Social Science & Education Library, and helped the English department bring a literary leader to campus each semester. Prior to coming to Purdue, Mobley was library director with General Motors Institute. She also served as a library administrator at Wayne State University, General Motors Research Laboratories and Chrysler Corporation. Mobley was also a past president of the Special Libraries Association and served on the board of directors for the Association of Research Libraries. She was the first African-American dean at Purdue.
Betty Nelson was fifth in a "heritage chain" of successful women deans at Purdue, serving from 1987-1996. An exceptionally active member of many Greater Lafayette community organizations, Nelson established the Dean Betty Nelson Service Award. This award honors Purdue students who have made remarkable contributions in the area of community service, but whose achievements often go unnoticed because of the humble nature of their work. Currently, Nelson is Dean of Students Emerita.
Helen Blanche Schleman (1902-1992), noted “unapologetic feminist,” came to Purdue in 1934 as director of the first women’s residence hall, subsequent to the razing of Ladies Hall in 1927. After taking a four-year leave of absence to serve in the Women’s Coast Guard Reserve during World War II, Schleman returned to Purdue in 1947 as Dean of Women. She is acknowledged for having fought for women’s rights at Purdue, including terminating the curfew for women students and spearheading a freshman conference program for women. Also during her tenure at Purdue, she earned a master’s degree in education and psychology. Schleman retired as Dean of Women in 1968 and went on to become founder and first director of the Span Plan, a program which encourages adult students to continue or start their college careers. She remained an active member of the community until her death in 1992. Schleman Hall, which now houses the Purdue’s Student Services department, is named in her honor.
Carolyn Ernestine Shoemaker (1868-1933) earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Purdue in 1888, and later a master’s degree in 1889. After spending several years caring for her incapacitated mother, Shoemaker found her way back to Purdue in 1900, taking on a position as professor of English Literature with the encouragement of Emma McRae, also a professor of English Literature and widely known "Lady Principal" of the University. In 1913, President Winthrop E. Stone offered Shoemaker the position of Dean of Women in addition to her teaching responsibilities. Among her accomplishments, Dean Shoemaker is remembered for her unceasing efforts in raising funds for the construction of the Purdue Memorial Union and ensuring that the alumni association remained an active organization on campus.
Annie Peck Smith (1850-1935) was a Latin and elocution professor at Purdue from 1881-1883. Though her career at Purdue was brief, she earned recognition for her teaching skills from both students and faculty. Her real fame, however, involved her mountain-climbing capabilities, an interest she developed while pursuing classical studies in Germany. She scaled a number of moderate-sized mountains in Europe and in the United States, including Mount Shasta in California (14, 380 feet). In 1895, she climbed the Matterhorn, becoming the first woman, and quite possibly the first person ever, to do so. She was also the first American woman in the western hemisphere to climb higher than 18, 314 feet, upon scaling Mount Orizaba in Mexico. In addition to being a successful mountaineer, Peck was also an aggressive supporter of women’s rights, planting a “Vote for Women” sign at the top of Mount Coropuna (21,250 feet) at the age of 61. She kept climbing until the age of 84, the year before her death. The Lima (Peru) Geographical Society has named a mountain peak in her honor. She is also the author of several guidebooks which chronicle her travels and adventures.
Beverley Stone began her 24-year career at Purdue in 1956, serving in the Office of the Dean of Women as an advisor to student organizations such as the Student Government, Panhellenic Association and Mortar Board. In 1968, she succeeded Helen Schleman as Dean of Women with the rank of assistant professor. In addition to successfully pulling through the “campus wars” during the turbulent 1960s, she ensured that students’ voices were heard, requiring that they be appointed to faculty committees and held “speaking seats” at the Board of Trustees meetings. In 1974, after the Dean of Women and Dean of Men offices were combined, Stone was named Purdue’s first Dean of Students, the first woman ever to hold such a position at a Big Ten university. It was also in this year that she coauthored a book with her colleague Barbara Cook entitled Counseling Women. Stone was an active member of many professional and community organizations and recipient of numerous honors and awards. In 1980, Stone retired, and Barbara Cook became her successor as Dean of Students. A sculpture honoring both women resides in between Schleman and Hovde halls.
Dorothy Stratton (1899-2006) became the first full-time Dean of Women in 1933, overseeing the construction of new residence halls at a time in which the enrollment of women students jumped from 500 to more than 1,400. During her tenure at Purdue, a liberal science program for women in the School of Science was enacted as well as an employment placement center. She helped established the Housemother’s Training School that gave intensive training to fraternity and sorority housemothers from across the United States. In 1942, during the second World War, Stratton took a leave of absence from Purdue in order to create and direct the Women’s Reserve of the Coast Guard, also known as SPARS (an acronym she coined based on the phrase "Semper Paratus, Always Ready"). Upon her retirement from the military in 1946, she was awarded a Legion of Merit Medal for her contributions to women in the armed forces. Stratton went on to serve as the first director of personnel at the International Monetary Fund and then later as an executive director of the Girl Scouts of the America until her retirement in 1960. Subsequent to her retirement, she served as a representative of the International Federation of University Women at the United Nations.
Janice Voss graduated from Purdue in 1975 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Engineering and went on to earn a Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1991, she became an astronaut, and has since logged 5 space flights, spending a total of 49 days in space and traveling 18.8 million miles in 779 Earth orbits. Currently, Dr. Voss is Science Director for the Kepler spacecraft at NASA Ames Research Center, and focusing her research on Earth-sized planets around distant stars.
Mary Ellen Weber earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Purdue in 1984. She then went on to earn a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of California in 1988. After working for Texas Instruments where she created a revolutionary reactor for manufacturing computer chips, Weber was selected by NASA in 1992 as a member of the fourteenth group of astronauts. Weber held a variety of different positions over the next 10 years, logging 450 hours in outer space. She is most well known for her appearance on the space shuttle Discovery in 1995. Currently, she is Vice President at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. She is also an active speaker on topics of performance, risk, and success, as well as a speaking consultant and coach.
Helen Bass Williams (1916-1991) came to Purdue in 1968 as a professor and counselor, with degrees in public health and French. She was instrumental in establishing several campus offices and organizations designed to address the needs of students, especially African American students. Among them were the Academic Success Center (previously the Learning Center) which was established in 1972, and the Black Cultural Center. Helen Bass Williams also gained notoriety for instilling students with values such as honesty, integrity, empathy, and respect for authority. She was also active in community service, helping establish wellness clinics throughout Mississippi and active in the movement to register African Americans to vote. Bass Williams was the first African American professor hired at Purdue.
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