Purdue's Female Founders
The Untold History of Trailblazing Women Faculty
Purdue’s Female Founders: The Untold History of Trailblazing Women Faculty written by Angie Lipp Klink and edited by Dr. Jennifer Bay reveals for the first time in one volume the fortitude and achievements of the twentieth-century foremothers of Purdue University. This engaging book is a collection of profiles on women faculty who, despite profound roadblocks because of their gender, shaped Purdue University from its beginning in the late 1800s through the twentieth century.
Read about Purdue women who persevered against odds to follow their dreams to conduct research and teach; establish departments, schools, and colleges; and blaze paths where only men trod. Learn about women who faced discrimination but persisted and thrived in the face of prejudice.
Compelling stories celebrate women in art, science, nutrition, literature, nursing, speech, engineering, fashion design, home economics, family life, psychology, agriculture, health and kinesiology, business, and more. Through meticulous research, author Angie Lipp Klink covers 125 years of buried Purdue history told through the female lens.
Sampling of Women Featured
• Laura Fry, professor of industrial arts beginning in 1891 and a patent holder for a ceramic glazing technique used by Rookwood Pottery in Cincinnati where she had worked. Established Art Museum of Greater Lafayette and Purdue Women’s Club.
• Mary Lockwood Matthews, first female academic dean on campus when she became dean of the School of Home Economics in 1926. She created Indiana’s first nursery school at Purdue that same year.
• Anna Akeley was born in Vienna, Austria, and escaped the Nazis, arriving in Lafayette, Indiana, in 1942 to marry a Purdue physics professor. The couple were avid art collectors and donated part of their valuable collection to Purdue. Akeley was the only Purdue physics instructor tenured without a degree.
• Gertrude Sunderlin led the development of Master Mix in 1948, establishing the beginning of all baking mixes.
• Helen Clark conducted groundbreaking research on high-lysine corn and in 1974 was the first woman to be recognized as a Distinguished Professor at Purdue.
• Anita Dickson established the Superior School of Home Economics in Vicosa, Brazil, as part of the Purdue-Brazil program.
• Laurentza Schantz-Hansen, artist and head of the Department of Applied Design from 1929-1955. She organized campus art activities, including the Hoosier Salon in the Purdue Memorial Union.
• Esther Fern Rupel preserved Purdue’s historic costume collection. Purdue’s Female Founders
• Helen Johnson founded Purdue’s School of Nursing in 1963.
• Virginia R. Ferris, first female faculty member in School of Agriculture, first Assistant Dean of Graduate School & first Assistant Provost who conducted groundbreaking research on nematodes.
• Helen Bass Williams, an activist who marched with Martin Luther King, became Purdue’s first Black faculty member in 1968, and strove against odds to bring more Black students to Purdue.
• Clara Bell founded the Minority Students in Nursing organization.
• Jo Brooks originated the Indiana Family Health Clinic.
• Leah H. Jamieson, Dean of the College of Engineering, Co-founder of Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS).
• Susan Kontos founded the Center for Families.
• Rachel Stark, member of the first team of women to climb the Himalayas in 1955. At Purdue created the first coding system describing infants’ sounds.
• Macalyne Fristoe, inventor of the renowned Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation still used today and translated into Spanish.
• Charlene Sullivan, associate dean of undergraduate programs at Krannert in 2011, launched the Larsen Leaders Academy and the Brock-Wilson Center for Women in Management.
• Carolyn Y. Woo, immigrated to the U.S. from Hong Kong to attend Purdue in 1972, obtained three degrees before becoming a faculty member and Krannert administrator. Served as associate executive vice president for academic affairs. Returned to Purdue in 2016 as Distinguished President’s Fellow for Global Development. Received 2022 Indiana Living Legends Award.
• Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth, founding co-director of the nationally groundbreaking Military Family Research Institute.
• Christine Ladisch, Inaugural dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences.
