Linkswiler, Hellen (1912-1984)

Hellen Linkswiler

It was due to her independence and determination that Hellen Linkswiler overcame a background of poverty and limited encouragement for women in science and became a well-respected nutrition researcher and teacher.

She grew up on an Oklahoma farm with eight siblings, two of whom died in infancy. Later she recalled having to eat moldy bread because no other food was available. When she wished to go to high school, she had to move to a nearby town where she stayed with a family and worked for her room and board. Her father discouraged her from attending college, believing that an education would be wasted on a woman, but Linkswiler persevered and earned a BS with a major in Home Economics Education and a minor in English from Oklahoma State University in 1939. She taught high school for several years before serving as a SPAR in the US Coast Guard from 1944 to 1946.

She then earned an MS in Foods and Nutrition (1949) and a PhD (1951) in Biochemistry and Foods and Nutrition from UW, working under nutritionist May Reynolds and biochemist Carl Baumann. After holding positions as professor of Foods and Nutrition at the University of Alabama (1951-54) and the University of Nebraska (1954-60), Linkswiler was appointed to the Foods and Nutrition Department at UW, where she remained until her retirement in 1981. When she moved to Madison in 1960 to take up this position, a banker refused to give her a mortgage unless her application was co-signed by a man. He accepted the signature of her father, even though he was at this time financially dependent on her.

Linkswiler's highly respected research in the areas of vitamin B-6 metabolism and amino acids earned her the American Home Economics Association's Borden Award in 1971. Towards the end of her career, Linkswiler began investigating a third area, the relationship between protein consumption and the urinary loss of calcium.

In addition to her research, Linkswiler served as teacher and mentor to many undergraduate and graduate students in the Department of Foods and Nutrition within the School of Home Economics from 1960 to 1968 and, after 1968, in the Department of Nutritional Sciences within the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.