Lillian Barlow Initiatives For Women Award
| My mother,
Lillian Barlow, completed about a year of college
before she had to drop out to support herself and her mother.
That was during the Great Depression, and higher education
was a luxury few could afford. Decades later,
when my brother and I had grown up and left home,
I urged my mother to finish her degree. She declined.
That was the 1960's and middle-aged married women didn't do
such things. |
Lillian Barlow |
She was
understandably reluctant to return to college when the
most popular slogan on campus was "Never trust
anyone over thirty." My mother did go back to
school although in a very different capacity: for many years
she was a volunteer aide in special education classes for young
children. She also took "adult ed" courses and read
prodigiously, but I suspect she always regretted not
finishing college.
She passed away last summer, and I
can think of no more appropriate way to honor my mother's memory
than with a gift to Initiatives for Women. I know she couldn't imagine
a better program than one that helps returning women students pay
for books and childcare, encourages support staff to take special
training courses, and provides undergraduates with the funds to
complete research projects. Most important, I'm certain my mother
would love the idea that she could help another woman receive the
education that she never did.
--Judith Barlow (1998)
