Organizational Structures for Current Living

This series of messages focus on those who created the organizations that opened up our society.

    • Circles of Insight

      John Venn was born in England in 1834. He grew up in a very strict religious family with no nurturing from a mother who died when he was 3. Like many of the privileged class in England, he was educated in a private school. When he went to college, he began to study...

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    • Helping the World to Read

      Ruth (Johnson) Colvin was born into a family of five children in Chicago. Her father was a Swedish American and the head of a successful construction company. She received a two-year degree and studied at Northwestern, where she met her husband. Her husband had a...

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    • Educator for African Americans

      Mary (McLeod) Bethune was born to parents who had been slaves. She became a field worker at the age of 5 but wanted to become educated. She was the 15th of 17 children raised in a small log cabin. She attended a one-room schoolhouse and would teach her family what she...

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    • A New Way of Imagining Retirement

      Ethel Andrus was born in California but spent much of her growing up years in Chicago where her father was an attorney. Her father instilled in her the belief that the greatest rewards in life come from supporting others. Ethel was a volunteer at the Hull House where...

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    • The Birth of a Great America City

      Julia (Sturtevant) Tuttle was born in Cleveland OH. She was 26 years old when she first visited southern Florida. Her father was a homesteader in Florida and Julia wanted to see the land he had raved about since he relocated from Cleveland. The land was beautiful, but...

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    • Creator of Fitness Gyms

      Gustav Zander was born in Sweden in 1835. He became a doctor in 1864. Sweden was a welfare state, and the government was concerned with employee safety. Physicians had begun to understand that physical fitness was a key to the prevention of workplace injuries. Gustav...

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    • The First African American Bank President

      Maggie (Draper) Walker was born to a mother who was a former slave and to a biological father who was a Confederate soldier. When Maggie was 14 years old, she joined the Independent Order of St. Luke (IOSL), an African-American benefit society. IOSL supported...

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    • Sharing Wisdom Across Generations

      Ernest Coulter was born in Columbus, Ohio, and completed a B.A. degree from Ohio State University. He then went on to law school. Coulter started his career as a journalist while completing his legal studies. He began his legal career in children’s court. This was the...

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    • The Power of Collective Action

      Justin Kimball was born in Texas and studied to be an educator. He began his teaching career at rural schools in Louisiana. He then returned to Texas when he became a principal of a school and later a superintendent of schools. His success as an educational leader...

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    • Origin of Public Relations

      David Finkelstein was born to a father who was a writer and a mother who created children’s dresses. He adopted his father’s pen name and went by the last name of Finn. He graduated from the City College of New York and served in the military during World War II....

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