Helen S. Willard

Helen Smith Willard (January 22, 1894 – June 8, 1980) was an American occupational therapist and college professor. She was a professor of occupational therapy at the University of Pennsylvania, and co-authored Principles of Occupational Therapy (1947), an important textbook in the field. She was president of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) from 1958 to 1961.

Early life and education
Willard was born in Stamford, Connecticut, the daughter of Everett Chickering Willard and Charlotte Elvira Smith Willard. She graduated from Wellesley College in 1915. She trained as a physical therapist at Brigham Hospital in Boston. She qualified as an occupational therapist in 1922.

Career
Willard became director of the Philadelphia School of Occupational Therapy in 1935. The school became part of the University of Pennsylvania in 1950. In 1952 she helped to found the World Federation of Occupational Therapists. In 1954 she was named a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania. She was president of the American Occupational Therapy Association from 1958 to 1961. She retired as an emeritus professor in 1964.

With her colleague and co-author Clare S. Spackman, Willard traveled to Nagpur in 1960, to speak at a meeting of the All-Indian Association of Occupational Therapists.

Publications

 * "Occupational Therapy: A New Profession" (1939)
 * "Occupational Therapy as a Vocation" (1942)
 * "Salvaging the Nation's Man Power" (1942)
 * Principles of Occupational Therapy (1947, with Clare S. Spackman)

Personal life and legacy
Spackman and Helen S. Willard lived together, and shared a summer residence in Vermont. Willard died in 1980, at the age of 86, in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. In 1981, the AOTA established the Helen S. Willard Scholarship in her memory. In 2017, she was named one of the 100 most influential people in the field of occupational therapy.