Mary E. Wood
"As
an outstanding dedicated black woman, she has maintained
and
promoted high principles
in spite of repeated racial rejections,
making a difference in this community and in the nation." —Lois Eichacker, 1996
Mary
E. Wood, Des Moines, born in 1902, was the only African American
to graduate from East High in Des Moines in 1920 and from Drake
University in 1924. She received her M.A. degree at New York
University and is a certified social worker. Active all her
life in the YWCA, Wood has served as branch youth program director
for the YWCA in Tulsa, Oklahoma; branch youth and camp director
in Denver, Colorado; branch executive director, Newark; and branch
executive director, Southwest Belmont, Philadelphia. In 1956,
Wood became the first African-American woman in the United States
to be named executive director of a metropolitan YWCA—Buffalo
and Erie County, New York—and later went on to serve as
metropolitan executive director of Greater Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
She has also served on numerous committees, social agencies,
churches, and Women's organizations, including the New York State
Board of Education. Among her honors are Woman of the Year, Zeta
Phi Beta; Alumni Distinguished Service Award, Drake University;
listed in "Who's Who Among Women of the World;" and
September 4 designated Mary E. Wood Day in Pittsburgh. She was
inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame in 1996.
UPDATE: Wood
died in November of 1998.
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