Ethel Percy Andrus | |
|---|---|
 Andrus in 1936 | |
| Born | September 21, 1884 San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Died | July 13, 1967(1967-07-13) (aged 82) Long Beach, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of Chicago Lewis Institute University of Southern California |
| Occupation | Educator |
| Known for | First woman high school principal in California; founder ofAARP |
Ethel Percy Andrus (September 21, 1884 – July 13, 1967) was a long-time educator and the first female high school principal inCalifornia. She was also an elder rights activist and the founder ofAARP in 1958.[1]
In 1993, she was inducted into theNational Women's Hall of Fame.[2] In 1995, she was designated aWomen's History Month Honoree by theNational Women's History Project.[3]
Andrus earned a bachelor of philosophy degree from theUniversity of Chicago in 1903 and aBachelor of Science degree fromLewis Institute, nowIllinois Institute of Technology, in 1918. She then went on to receive her master's and doctoral degrees from theUniversity of Southern California in 1928 and 1930, respectively.
While teaching at the Lewis Institute, she volunteered atJane Addams'Hull House.[4]
Andrus founded a separate organization, the National Retired Teachers Association (NRTA) in 1947. She realized that retired teachers were living on very smallpensions, often without anyhealth insurance. She approached more than 30 companies to offer health insurance to retired teachers before she found someone willing to take a chance on NRTA members in 1956. The organization expanded its membership to all retirees and became AARP in 1958.
In 1954, she moved toOjai, California, to start Grey Gables of Ojai, an NRTA sponsored retirement community.[citation needed] She ran both NRTA and AARP from her offices in Ojai until 1964 when she moved the administrative branch of AARP to Long Beach. It was while living in Ojai that she founded AARP in 1958. Today, the NRTA is still a division of AARP and serves as its educator community.
Andrus died July 13, 1967, inLong Beach, California, and is buried at Ivy Lawn Memorial Park inVentura, California.
TheEthel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center is named after her at theUniversity of Southern CaliforniaLeonard Davis School of Gerontology, the oldest and largest existing professional school of gerontology.
Among Andrus' many accomplishments is a stint as a faculty member atChicago'sLewis Institute, a predecessor ofIllinois Institute of Technology, and being the first woman principal of a major urban high school in the state of California atAbraham Lincoln High School in Los Angeles.[5] She was inducted into theNational Women's Hall of Fame in 1993.The Extra Mile National Monument in Washington, D.C., selected Andrus as one of its 37 honorees. The Extra Mile pays homage to Americans like Andrus who set their own self-interest aside to help others and successfully brought positive social change to the United States.[6]
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