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Henderson, Ruth (1890-1980)
Ruth Henderson, who held a joint appointment in the Department of Home Economics, the School of Education, and the Wisconsin High School from 1923 to 1958, carried her love for teaching home economics around the world. Perhaps her early encounters with different cultures led to her passion for traveling. While studying at Lewis College in Chicago from 1909 to 1911, she taught food classes to the children of poor Italian immigrants. Later, as a home economics teacher in Wisconsin, she found that Jewish children at one school weren't eating because the food was not appropriately prepared, and so she consulted with a rabbi and implemented his suggestions. While at UW, she turned in her pay during several summers to earn enough money to travel to countries in Europe, South America, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. During the 1950s, she received two Fullbright fellowships. The first enabled her to teach home economics extension to students at the Superior School of Agriculture in Athens, Greece during the 1953-54 academic year. The second made possible a year at the Queen Alia College in Baghdad, Iraq where she taught a course in home economics methods. Henderson also served as a consultant to the International Teacher Development Program. She authored two textbooks on food, Foods--Their Nutritive Economic and Social Values for senior high school students and Let's Study Foods for junior high school students. |
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