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Reynolds, May (1891-1986)
May Reynolds cared passionately about teaching. She always treasured the response that Abby Marlatt gave to her news that she was planning to pursue a PhD in Foods and Nutrition: "I hope it doesn't spoil a good teacher." After she earned her BS at Iowa State University in 1914, Reynolds taught home economics and Latin and coached the girls' basketball team at an Iowa high school. In 1915, she came to Lodi, Wisconsin to live on a farm with her husband. After he died in the 1918 influenza epidemic, leaving her with a two-year-old daughter, she returned to Iowa to continue teaching high school. But dissatisfied with her life, she moved back to Wisconsin to resume her education. Reynolds earned her MS (1924) and PhD (1936) from UW, where she worked under nutritionist Helen Parsons, medical researcher Elmer Severinghaus, and biochemist Harry Steenbock. Her early research, conducted with Helen Parsons, dealt with human ascorbic acid metabolism. Her first publication, a 1924 article co-authored with Parsons, demonstrated that rats could synthesize their own ascorbic acid, while guinea pigs, like humans, could not. But the majority of her research career concentrated on the protein needs of humans. Her research projects, which included such topics as the protein content of soybeans, the difference between natural and synthetic sources of protein, and the influence of nutrient intake on protein metabolism, made a significant contribution to international guidelines on dietary standards. Later in her career she developed a course in world nutrition problems. The quality of her research received official recognition in 1958, when Reynolds was awarded the Borden Award for nutrition research. Reynolds' interest in helping others through her research can also be seen in her long service record. As early as 1923, she gave regular nutrition broadcasts on WHA. She also wrote extension publications and taught classes at Farm and Home Week for many years. Reynolds believed that a new field such as nutrition provided opportunities for women that did not exist in scientific fields already dominated by men, and she encouraged women to pursue science by arranging for high school students to visit home economics labs at UW. Other service activities included leading the Dane County Nutrition for the Elderly Committee.
At age seventy, when according to the mandatory retirement policy she was required to retire, Reynolds was far from ready to give up her work. Instead she spent two years as a nutrition research consultant in Pakistan with Frances Zuill, where she worked on a project established by the Ford Foundation and Oklahoma State University. She spent the years teaching students and teachers about nutrition and preparing curriculum study guides in the sciences. After she returned in 1963, she became a visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania State University, Brigham Young University, and the University of Delaware. In 1970, nearly eighty years old, Reynolds finally retired. Reynolds had an important influence on many people--the homemakers across the state who heard her nutrition broadcasts and read her extension publications, the young women she encouraged to pursue science, the many undergraduates who took her introductory nutrition classes, the more than sixty graduate students she supervised, and countless people around the world who benefited from her teaching and research. Another person who demonstrates the legacy of Reynolds' impressive life is her daughter Margaret Nelson, who became a professor of consumer science at UW and who specialized in educating women about credit. Like her mother, Nelson lived independently and chose a focus that allowed her to help others to do the same. |
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