Alumni Magazine

Dickinson Magazine reports the creation and opening of Hurrah for Coeducation!, an exhibit in Dickinson's Archives & Special Collections chronicling and celebrating the 125th anniversary of women studying at the college.  In the summer of 2009 interns Allyson Glazier, Cassidy Dermott, Alli Schell - all of the class of 2011 - teamed up under the guidance of special collections librarian Malinda Triller to compile artifacts of many types relating to the history of women at Dickinson.  The exhibit displayed photographs, letters, maps, and various other artifacts organized in cases

Dickinson Magazine chronicles the birth of coeducation at the college.  In 1877 a committee considered "the advisability of admitting ladies," and the next year faculty voted almost unanimously that women should attend Dickinson - a single professor, Henry Harman, opposed the idea.  He was still opposed in 1883, when a faculty vote nonetheless approved admission of women to the college.  Although Harman may never have warmed to the idea of women at Dickinson, he did agree in 1896 to have his name ironically attached to a newly-formed women's literary society.

Miss Sarah Gere Yocum, class of 1891, died December 9 in New Orleans.  Yocum painted many articles which she presented to the College, as well as much china which resides in the Dickinsoniana Collection.  Mrs. Helen Horn Jordan of Wilkinsburg, Pa., of the class of 1897, died December 15 in Bedford County Memorial Hospital.  A native of Carlisle,  Jordan was a member of the Gamma Zeta Sorority and the Harman Society while at Dickinson.  She had a "life-long interest in Dickinson and was a Life Member of the General Alumni Association."

The class of 1945's Katharine Knipe Shirk died July 12th, 2009.  She studied sociology at Dickinson.  Emma Cowell Slocum '37, an English major who taught music in public-school, died November 7th.  Five days later, Barbara Kahn '38 passed away.  Barbara worked in health services after studying biology at Dickinson.  From the class of 1940, Barbara Kirkpatrick Stroup died December 3rd. 
She taught for 30 years in Gettysburg at James Gettys Elementary
School.  On December 17th, Kristen Meyer of the class of 2000 passed

Rev. Mary Douglas Glasspool '75 becomes the "first openly lesbian bishop to be elcted by the Episcopal Church."

Dickinson Magazine reports the 2002 retirement of Lillian Buirkle, class of 1958, from Parke-Davis/Pfizer, where she held the post of senior scientist for 35 years.

Dickinson's first female graduate, Zatae Longsdorff, class of 1887, was commemorated by an alcove and plaque in Rector Science Complex.  The plaque was unveiled March 9th, 2010.

Spotlighted in Dickinson Magazine is Gretchen Dockter Hancock, a 1991 graduate who studied geology.  Her major combined with her research on climate change led her to an unexpected position for General Electric as project manager of its Corporate Environmental Programs at the company's Connecticut base.  Since her appointment in 2005, Hancock has seen a 750,000 metric ton reduction of carbon output at GE's facilities worldwide. 

Dickinson Magazine features the story of Joyce Rinehart Anderson '45, "the first or second female designer in the American craft movement."  After studying language at Dickinson, Joyce moved back to her hometown of Morristown, New Jersey, and married high school sweetheart Edgar.  At their property on which they have lived, worked, and have preserved for sixty years, Joyce built furniture, decorations, and the house itself, cultivating special skill in lathing.  Today she is recognized as one of the "foremost American craft artists."

The August 1982 edition of the Alumni Magazine dicussed female Dickinsonian's roles within society. According to the author's study "Dickinson women prove to be non-traditional" and often have careers, stay single longer, and wait to have children. Thus the author contends, Dickinson alumnae's participation in the labor force is higher than the average American woman.