The Deans' Bible. Angie Klink
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The Founders Series
Also by Angie Klink
Kirby’s Way: How Kirby and Caroline Risk Built their Company on Kitchen-Table Values
Divided Paths, Common Ground: The Story of Mary Matthews and Lella Gaddis, Pioneering Purdue Women Who Introduced Science into the Home
THE DEANS’ BIBLE
Five Purdue Women andTheir Quest for Equality
By Angie Klink
Purdue University Press
West Lafayette, Indiana
The author and publisher gratefully acknowledge the support of friends and admirers of the deans depicted in this book. Without their generosity, the writing and production of this book would not have been possible.
Copyright 2014 by Purdue University. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
Cataloging-in-Publication data on file at the Library of Congress.
Cover design by Natalie Powell.
In memory of my mother,Rosemary Lawhead Rhodes Lipp,because no one told her she could.
CONTENTS
Foreword
Preface
Author’s Note
The Deans’ List
1Celestial Chicken Salad
2Carolyn Shoemaker, a Faraway Look
3Artists of Life
4Far Horizons
5Dorothy Stratton Finds a Bible
6Helen Schleman, Born in the Right Moment
7If Walls Could Talk
8Amelia Earhart, Cabbages and Kings
9Lillian Gilbreth, the One Best Way
10Ladies’ Agreement
11Beverley Stone, a Lovely Light
12Your Best Foot Forward
13Be Interesting
14Don’t Be a Spare … Be a SPAR!
15Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch
16In Sheep’s Clothing
17Barbara Ivy Wood Cook, ’Tis a Gift to Be Free
18Bible Bequeathed
19Gospel of the Go-to-Hell Fund
20B-Squared
21Dean of Women Punch
22At the Service of the President
23Mixed Messages
24Winter’s Death Rattle
25Betty Mitchell Nelson, Message in the Hollow Oak
26’Twas Ever Thus
27The Quiet Crisis
28Uncharted Waters
29Peace, Love, and a Bible Passage
30Off Guard
31Sit In, Stand Out
32In Walks the Pantsuit
33Hip Women
34Entitled to Title IX
35The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Can Rock the Boat
36Easier to Move a Cemetery
37And She Did It!
38Deanie Weenies
39Bible Holding Pattern
40Chicken Salad Reprise
41The Main Thing
42To Understand More Than One Knows
43Hearing What Is Not Said
44Helen’s Hankie Club
45Betty’s Blast Off and Bible Hand Off
46Hugging the Purdue Campus
47By Your Leave, Sirs
48The Place Just Right
49Epilogue
Index
We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
—ELIE WIESEL, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR, AUTHOR OF NIGHT NOBEL PEACE PRIZE ACCEPTANCE SPEECH, 1986
FIVE REMARKABLE WOMEN enlivened and enhanced Purdue University from 1933 to 1995. They shared profound concern for students and the educations they were receiving. In addition, they also were united by their efforts to expand opportunities for women, both at Purdue and nationally.
Purdue itself benefited immensely from their service, including their forceful and direct efforts to convince their boss, typically the university president, to modify policies that would make Purdue a stronger university. Often, though not always, they were successful.
Who was this quintet? They were the deans of women and then deans of students from 1933 to 1995: Dorothy C. Stratton, Helen B. Schleman, M. Beverley Stone, Barbara I. Cook, and Betty M. Nelson. In their early years they were part of a mere handful of adult women in positions of responsibility at Purdue. Thus, their concerns for women transcended student life to include opportunities for women as professors and senior administrators. Not surprisingly, many of their male colleagues did not share their enthusiasm.
Angie Klink has recorded their experiences in this lively volume, The Deans’ Bible: