20th-century American educators

Virginia_E._Johnson

Virginia E. Johnson (born Mary Virginia Eshelman; February 11, 1925 – July 24, 2013) was an American sexologist and a member of the Masters and Johnson sexuality research team. Along with her partner, William H. Masters, she pioneered research into the nature of human sexual response and the diagnosis and treatment of sexual dysfunctions and disorders from 1957 until the 1990s.

Alice_Palmer_(politician)

Alice J. Palmer (née Roberts, June 20, 1939 – May 25, 2023) was an American educator and politician who served as a member of the Illinois Senate. Known as a longtime progressive activist, Palmer represented the state's 13th Senate District from June 6, 1991, until January 8, 1997. At the time, the district spanned an economically diverse area and included the Chicago communities of Hyde Park, South Shore and Englewood.First appointed to fill the vacant seat of retired state senator Richard H. Newhouse, Jr., Palmer successfully ran for election in 1992 and served a four-year term that ended on January 8, 1997. She ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1995, and was disqualified from running in the Democratic primary for her Illinois Senate seat by Barack Obama, who was running against her and successfully challenged her petition signatures. Obama succeeded her in office.

Florence_Birdwell

Florence Gillam Birdwell (September 3, 1924 – February 15, 2021), sometimes referred to as Flo Birdwell, was an American educator, musician, and singer. She taught musical theater and opera singing for more than six decades. She served as a professor of voice at the Bass School of Music at Oklahoma City University from 1946 to 2013, and afterwards periodically teaching master classes as a professor emerita.
In 2024, the National Association of Teachers of Singers honored Birdwell's career and contributions by naming the first prize of its annual National Musical Theatre Competition "The Florence Birdwell Award." The competition, held in New York City and featuring O'Hara as honorary host, took place on Jan. 8, 2024.

Joaquín_Bustoz_Jr.

Joaquín Bustoz Jr. (1939–2003) was an American mathematician who worked as a professor of mathematics at Arizona State University. His mathematical research concerned functional analysis, including orthogonal polynomials and special functions, but he was primarily known as a mentor to underrepresented minorities in mathematics.Bustoz was born in Tempe, Arizona; his parents worked on the local farms and also for the Tempe Elementary School District, which eventually named the Joaquin and Ramona Bustoz Elementary School after them. He graduated from Arizona State University in 1962 with a degree in mathematics, and after two years in California working for Univac returned to ASU, where he completed a doctorate in 1967 under the supervision of Walter Tandy Scott. After teaching at the University of Cincinnati from 1969 to 1976, during which he also spent a year at the National University of Colombia as a Fulbright Scholar, he returned to ASU again as an associate professor in 1976, and was promoted to full professor in 1978. He chaired the ASU mathematics department from 1982 to 1985.In 1985, Bustoz founded the Summer Math–Science Honors program for high school students, which continues at ASU as the Joaquin Bustoz Math–Science Honors Program. Bustoz also worked on mathematics education on the Navajo Nation and the Pima reservations. For his efforts, president Bill Clinton honored him in 1996 with the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring.He was killed by a car accident on August 13, 2003. As well as the Math–Science Honors program, the Joaquin Bustoz Jr. Professorship at ASU, held by Carlos Castillo-Chavez, is named after Bustoz.

Ruth_Bradley_Holmes

Edith Frances Ruth Bradley Holmes (November 26, 1924 – September 2, 2021) was an American linguist, educator, and polyglot who authored two Cherokee language textbooks. Holmes served on the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education from 1975 to 1985. She taught Russian language at Louisiana State University and Russian and Cherokee language adult education courses in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

Carolyn_Hunt

Carolyn Joyce Hunt (née Leonard; born July 3, 1937) is an American educator and politician who, as the wife of Jim Hunt, served as the Second Lady of North Carolina from 1973 to 1977 and twice-served as the First Lady of North Carolina, from 1977 to 1985 and again from 1993 to 2001. She is the longest serving first lady in North Carolina history and she and her husband were the first governor and first lady to serve two four-year terms in North Carolina. As first lady, she served as the Chairwoman of the advisory council for the Governor's Office of Citizen Affairs, which promoted volunteerism throughout the state, and as Chairwoman of the North Carolina Friendship Force Program, a chapter of Friendship Force International, which promoted international student exchange programs in state public schools. In between her terms as first lady, she served on the board of directors and the executive committee of Friendship Force International and, in 1986, was elected to the Wilson County Public School Board.

Vivienne_Malone-Mayes

Vivienne Lucille Malone-Mayes (née Malone; February 10, 1932 – June 9, 1995) was an American mathematician and professor. Malone-Mayes studied properties of functions, as well as methods of teaching mathematics. She was the fifth African-American woman to gain a PhD in mathematics in the United States, and the first African-American member of the faculty of Baylor University.