Ellen Swallow Richards

We have arrived in Knoxville,  Ellen and I, along with our driver, Bob.  Driving Miss Ellen has been his job for the past 3 years.  We have already met many of our friends from all over the country.  Today quite a few are participating in the wonderful tours that our host LAC Committee has planned for us.  Ellen and I will be in meetings most of the day.

We had a nice breakfast this morning with Billie and John Collier.  Billie is the Dean of the College of Human Sciences at Florida State University.

The AAFCS Centennial Celebration is finally here and we are headed to Knoxville tomorrow.  The excitement has been building for nearly three years as plans have been made for this celebration. Ellen and I are all packed and ready to pack the car.  As always, Bob will say, “We can never get all that stuff in here!”  “Why are we taking so much stuff?”  We have a lot going on during two days before the Opening Session.  Ellen will make several appearances throughout the conference.  So much has been leading up to this grand celebration, it makes one wonder what we will do with ourselves when it is all over Saturday night.  Of course, Ellen and I have many more stops to make yet this year as we continue to share with others across the country, our rich heritage all begun 100 years ago.  We will meet with Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina FACS Teachers yet this summer.  The final Ellen appearances will be in Lake Placid, New York, where it all began and also Washington State Affiliate meeting in Yakima, WA late in October.

This Trail of Ellen Richards has been one interesting ride and one that I totally underestimated the benefits.  It will be fun this next year just reflecting on all that we have seen and heard as we have traveled around the country.  See everyone after annual meeting.

Just returned home from a fabulous week in Utah, spending time with friends and sharing the Ellen story with FACS teachers. This was an unusually cool week for a June in Utah.  We had lots of rain and everything was gorgeously green and alive. Nights were in the 50s and daytime in the 70s.Two years ago we spent time in Salt Lake City over July 4th and it was 100!

Betty Woodruff and her gracious husband, Richard, were my hosts for my visit to Provo and Brigham Young University and the UTAH FACS Teachers’ Conference. .

  I couldn’t have asked for a more wonderful couple to share with me their Mormon heritage as well as share their beautiful corner of the world.

We presented the Ellen DVD as well as the Life and Legacy story of IN HER OWN WORDS. Later, we also presented a breakout session on Technology Impacting FACS

Becky Cox, ACTE FACS Vice President is joined here by fellow FACS teachers.

Long time Jacksonville, Florida friends, Chuck and Eleanor, who have a home in Sandy, UT were my hosts in Salt Lake Area. 

We visited a newly completed Oquirrh Mountain Mormon Temple.  This was a very moving experience as we went from room to room of magnificent beauty.

We also made a trip up to Brighton and stopped at Silver Fork Lodge for breakfast on the way.  A walk around the lake at Solitude was just spectacular.

This has been an incredible  24 hours.  Ellen and I made a quick trip back to Purdue University where the Indiana Extension Homemakers Association was celebrating their 96th  Conference.  The first was in 1913, barely 4 years after the founding of AHEA. As a Purdue graduate in Home Economics Education, it is always a nostalgic trip to return.  Over 50 years ago, I attended Purdue as a 4-Her at Purdue Round Up.  Little did I know that 50 years later, I would stand on the stage in the Purdue Memorial Union and present the story of the life and legacy of Ellen Richards.  The biggest surprise of all was that my Wabash County 4-H leader was in the audience and came up and introduced herself.  Mary Jane Wendell.  She and her husband are now living in my hometown of North Manchester at Timbercrest Retirement Living.  It was such a joy to see her after nearly 50 years.  It was also very important to me to thank this group of ladies because the group was responsible over 50 years ago for starting Twin Pines Cooperative at Purdue.  This was a special house originally only for girls majoring in Home Economics. Today, it is still alive and well with 28 girls majoring in all sorts of options. 

This is Joyce and her 4-H Leader, Mary Jane Wendell..

These past two weeks we have been on tour, some with family and friends and some with the Ellen show.  We had a great time in Pennsylvania with the Affiliate membership meeting in Malvern, PA.  Photos will follow.  The PA Affiliate has given a generous gift of $5,000 to the Centennial Challenge Campaign and we are grateful for their belief in the future of the association.  Their meeting hosted nearly 200 professionals which included 30 students.  The students eagerly attended the sessions and learned a lot from long time members.  We left Pennsylvania and headed to Washington DC for the weekend and a few extra days.  Our visit to the newly reopened American History Museum delighted us as we were treated first to the Vassar Observatory Telescope from Maria Mitchell’s laboratory, but just around the corner was Ellen in all her glory as one of the first women scientists.  Joyce even stopped long enough to tell visitors some “Ellen stories” as they stopped to view the exhibit.

We had opportunity to visit the AAUW  headquarters where we met with Lisa Goodnight and gave her a copy of the Life and Legacy of Ellen Richards DVD.  We anticipate they will want to alert their members to this resource on Ellen who was a co-founder of the Collegiate Alumnae Association in 1881, along with Marion Talbot.

Joyce played at being a Smithsonian docent while she was visiting.  People stopped to listen as she told more about Ellen than they probably were expecting.  What fun.

Ellen’s drawing instruments

This is the lead story in the Ellen Exhibit at the Smithsonian.

This was the actual telescope from Vassar.  Ellen used this often as a student of Maria Mitchell.  Ellen would have chosen astronomy as a career if she could have seen any practical applications.

Visit us at AAFCS Annual meeting in Knoxville, purchase a set of the Ellen DVDs for $40 and receive a free rendering of an Ellen watercolor not available from any other source.

This is suitable for framing and is a nice addition to any collection.  This offer is available only in Knoxville.  The watercolor is from the cover of the book entitled

Adventurous Spirit by Ethlie Ann Vare.  The watercolor is by Jennifer Hagerman and has been reproduced by permission of the publisher.  The book is out of print and only available through resellers online.  Visit our booth in Knoxville to sign up to win your very own copy of the book.

We have returned from Virginia and Pennsylvania and have a new computer.  This means we have to learn a whole new system of downloading photos and managing them.  Also posting to the blog is different.  Virginia Affiliate had a wonderful Centennial Celebration.  It was late April and the entire city of Richmond was in full bloom.  We were able to renew many old friendships and made many new ones.  We were excited to hear all who planning to attend the Centennial Celebration in Knoxville.  Ida Powell for one will be attending to celebrate being a past Distinguished Service Award winner.

Here members of the Affiliate share their Virtual Ellen with the “real” Ellen.

We have been home for over a month now and just getting around to updating the post.  With a new computer and all new programs, it is a challenge.  Pennsylvania celebrated the Centennial in grand style.  On our drive to the meeting we were able to stop in Somerset, PA and do some genealogy research in their wonderful Historical Society. I have relatives who settled in this region in the mid 1700s and it was great to trace them back to Europe.  Pennsylvania has the distinction of being the home affiliate of AAFCS President, Shelly Nickols-Richardson and we enjoyed time with her at the meeting.  I think Ellen runs a close second only to Shelly in miles traveled for the association.

Shelly, Joyce and Mindy Rottmund, current PA Affiliate President and also an Ellen Richard’s “groupie”.  We practically had a pajama party one night exchanging ideas about dear Ellen.

Sally McCombie, PA Affiliate President-elect shares the stage with a visitor who was inviting everyone to the 2010 PA meeting with a Jungle theme.

From Savannah, we made a quick trip to Winston-Salem, NC where my own AAFCS Affiliate was celebrating 100 Years at a beautiful old inn that once was a cotton factory and warehouse in 1837, the Brookstown Inn. The building has lovingly been restored with each room being a nice suite that felt like home.  We even had cookies and milk served before heading to bed.  This meeting brought together many past NCAFCS Past Presidents. We continued many Rich Conversations that were begun last year in Greensboro as we shared why we had entered the profession and how we had enjoyed out practice in the field.  Myrtle Stogner (l) and Betty Penny were just two of our Past Presidents who joined us. Our eleven (11) students who joined us will continue the legacy that Ellen Richards left for us 100 years ago.

This past week, I attended the Florida/Georgia Association for Family and Consumer Sciences meeting in Savannah where we enjoyed meeting so many friends from both states.  This time, Ellen was on a little vacation and I presented on Technology Impacting Family and Consumer Sciences.  We enjoyed the gorgeous, Old South of Savannah’s wonderful parks and old, old buildings.  In an AAFCS National Issues Forum, Financial Fitness….It’s Priceless, we were able to use the deliberation guide produced by Deb Gentry, a former Chalkley-Fenn Public Policy Visiting Fellow.  We truly were able to live the dream using materials developed through special funding from gifts to the association. Members were treated to a special ” Two Nickols Worth, address from current AAFCS President, Shelly Nickols Richardson and her mother, Dr. Sharon Nickols, former AAFCS President, 2002-2003.

Top photo are Florida members, Monica Dawkins and Eleanor Cavanah

Lower Photo are Georgia members Sharon Nickols, Shelly Nickols-Richardson, current AAFCS President, Janet Valenti and Elizabeth Andress