User:Paulmcdonald/Kansas/5

May Louise Cowles (September 25, 1892-January 11, 1978) was an economist, researcher, author, and advocate of Home Economics. She had many submissions published in the Journal of Home Economics, the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, and Rural Sociology. She also produced several widely-read pamphlets including Meeting Housing Needs of Older People in Rural Areas (1957) and spoke at a string of national seminars to encourage the addition of family economics to home economics instruction across the United States. Cowles "created some of the first family economics courses in the nation" at the collegiate level.

She was born on September 25, 1892 in Sibley, Kansas and attended Kansas State Agricultural College where she earned a B.S. in home economics in 1912 and entered the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1915 to earn her master's degree in home economics. Kansas State University recognized her contributions to home economics and her participation in the field by awarding her the Distinguished Service Award for "outstanding achievement in home economics" in 1959.

Read more...