Edna P. Amidon
A smiling white woman with greying hair dressed back from her face, wearing glasses
Edna P. Amidon, from a 1938 publication of the US Department of the Interior
Born
Edna Phyllis Amidon

1895
Houston, Minnesota
Died1982
Eugene, Oregon
Occupation(s)Educator, federal official

Edna Phyllis Amidon (October 27, 1895 – October 4, 1982) was an American educator and federal official. She was chief of the Home Economics Education Service of the United States Office of Education from 1938 to 1964. In 1945, she helped found the Future Homemakers of America.

Early life and education

Edna P. Amidon was born in Houston, Minnesota,[1] the daughter of Edmund Perry Amidon and Mabel Julia Briggs Amidon. Both of her parents were also born in Minnesota. She studied at the University of Minnesota, where she earned a bachelor's degree, and a master's degree in 1927.[2]

Career

Amidon taught home economics as a young woman. She worked as a regional agent at the Federal Board for Vocational Education from 1929 until 1938, when she became chief of the Home Economics Education Service, succeeding Florence Fallgatter.[3] She was chief of the service for 25 years, until she retired in 1964. As chief of the service, she visited college and high school home economics programs,[4][5] worked with the United States War Department on educational rebuilding in Germany after World War II, and attended international conferences, including the 8th International Management Conference in Sweden (1947) and the International Seminar on Education and the Problems of Daily Living in France (1954).[6] In 1948 she address the American Home Economics Association meeting in Minneapolis.[7]

Amidon was one of the founders of the Future Homemakers of America in 1945, and chair of the FHA Advisory Board.[8] She also actively supported the New Homemakers of America, a sister group serving Black students in states were racial segregation was enforced.[9] She was also one of the original members of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington. She was a member of Phi Delta Kappa, the American Home Economics Association and the American Vocational Association.[2]

Amidon received the Outstanding Service Award from the American Vocational Association in 1953. The United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare recognized her life's work with a Superior Service Award in 1963. [6]

Publications

  • Space and Equipment for Homemaking Instruction: A Guide to Location and Arrangement of Homemaking Departments (1936, with Florence Fallgatter)[10]
  • "The Contribution of Home Economics Teachers to Health Education" (1941)[11]
  • Learning to Care for Children (1943, with Dorothy E. Bradbury)[12]
  • "Nutrition Education Through the Schools" (1944)[13]
  • Good Food and Nutrition for Young People and their Families (1946, with Dorothy E. Bradbury and Vivian V. Drenckhahn)[14]
  • "Home Economics Educators Take Stock" (1951)[15]
  • "A Better World Through Home Economics Education" (1952)[16]
  • "Can We Measure Up?" (1952)[17]
  • "Home Economics in a Scientific Age" (1958)[18]
  • "Contributions to Family Life Education by the Office of Education" (1958)[19]
  • "New explorations in home economics education" (1960)[20]

Personal life

Amidon retired to Eugene, Oregon. She died in 1982, a few weeks before her 87th birthday.[2] Her papers are in the collection of Oregon State University Libraries.[6]

References

  1. ↑ "Miss Edna Amidon, Native of Houston, Gets Federal Post". The Winona Daily News. 1938-09-12. p. 3. Retrieved 2022-05-04 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. 1 2 3 "Edna Amidon, Worked for Education Office". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 3, 2022.
  3. ↑ Studebaker, J. W. "New Services and Appointments" School Life (December 1938): 98. via Internet Archive
  4. ↑ "State Home Economists Meet Friday". The Times Dispatch. 1939-03-12. p. 34. Retrieved 2022-05-04 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ↑ "Edna Amidon will Visit ELHS Monday". The Lewiston Daily Sun. 1963-10-26. p. 7. Retrieved 2022-05-04 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. 1 2 3 "Edna P. Amidon Papers, 1924-1979". Oregon State University Libraries. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
  7. ↑ Loeb, Madeleine (1948-06-23). "Home Economists Told to Look afar; Must Work on International as Well as Local Levels, Panel Leader Tells Convention". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
  8. ↑ "FCCLA History". North Dakota FCCLA. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
  9. ↑ "Hundreds Here for First General Session of Sixth Annual NHA Convention". The Tuskegee Herald. 1952-05-27. p. 1. Retrieved 2022-05-04 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ↑ Amidon, Edna Phyllis; United States Office of Education; Fallgatter, Florence (1936). Space and Equipment for Homemaking Instruction: A Guide to Location and Arrangement of Homemaking Departments. United States Department of the Interior, Office of Education.
  11. ↑ Amidon, Edna P. (1941). "The Contribution of Home Economics Teachers to Health Education". Pi Lambda Theta Journal. 20 (2): 64–66. ISSN 2374-3093. JSTOR 42915714.
  12. ↑ Bradbury, Dorothy Edith; Amidon, Edna P. (1943). Learning to care for children. New York: D. Appleton-Century.
  13. ↑ Amidon, Edna P. (March 1944). "Nutrition Education Through the Schools". Journal of School Health. 14 (3): 63–66. doi:10.1111/j.1746-1561.1944.tb08421.x.
  14. ↑ "Good Food and Nutrition for Young People and Their Families. Edna P. Amidon , Dorothy E. Bradbury , Vivian V. Drenckhahn". Social Service Review. 20 (3): 443. 1946-09-01. doi:10.1086/635999. ISSN 0037-7961.
  15. ↑ Amidon, Edna P. "Home Economics Educators Take Stock." Journal of Home Economics 43 (1951): 257-258.
  16. ↑ Amidon, Edna P. "A better world through home economics education." American Vocational Journal 26 (1951): 13-24.
  17. ↑ Amidon, Edna P. "Can We Measure Up?." Journal of Home Economics. XLIC (September, (1952): 502-04.
  18. ↑ Amidon, Edna P. "Home Economics in a Scientific Age." Journal of Home Economics 50, no. 8 (1958): 655-658.
  19. ↑ Amidon, Edna P. (1958). "Contributions to Family Life Education by the Office of Education". Marriage and Family Living. 20 (3): 282–288. doi:10.2307/348467. ISSN 0885-7059. JSTOR 348467.
  20. ↑ Amidon, Edna P. "New explorations in home economics education." Journal of Home Economics 52, no. 8 (1960): 624-630.
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