Background
Helen Tracy Parsons was
born on March 26, 1886, in Arkansas City, Kansas. Having noticed
that teaching home economics was a "budding career" for
young women in the first decade of the twentieth century, Parsons
decided to pursue a college education in the field. She and her
sister attended a summer session at the Kansas Teachers College
in either 1907 or 1908, but quickly judged the school's teachers
to be "inadequate" and "not scholarly." Parsons
left the teachers college and matriculated at Kansas State Agricultural
College (now Kansas State University) in 1909, where she earned
her BS in general science in 1911. While at Kansas State, Parsons
took both science and home economics courses, an experience that
led the enthusiastic student to her vision of enriching home economics
with science.
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| Lafayette
B. Mendel |
In 1913, Parsons accepted
an offer made by Abby Marlatt
earlier that year to study for her master's at UW. She earned her
MS (1916) in biochemistry and home economics under the direction
of E.V. McCollum, a professor of agricultural chemistry. In 1917,
McCollum accepted a new position at Johns Hopkins University. Parsons
followed him, lured by the offer of a salaried research position,
a rare find for women in science at this time. However, frustrated
and bored with her limited responsibilities as a lab assistant,
she came back to UW in 1920. A substantial raise and the title of
assistant professor awaited Parsons upon her return to Madison.
Parsons took a leave of absence in 1926-28 to pursue her Ph.D. in
biochemistry at Yale University, supervised by Lafayette B. Mendel.
In 1928 she completed her Ph.D., which investigated high-protein
diets in pregnant and lactating rats.
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