All Student Biographies

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Lane, Cecelia Scott (M.S., Home Economics Education, 1937)

Cecelia Scott Lane received a master’s degree in Home Economics Education from Iowa State College in 1937. Prior to her enrollment at Iowa State, she had earned a bachelor’s degree at Prairie View A&M University in Texas. She went on to teach at Houston College for Negroes (now Texas Southern University), teaching there by 1947 (“With Recent,” 1947). By 1952, she was the Dean of Home Economics at Texas Southern University (“Homemaking,” 1952). Lane taught there for the rest of her career. The Department of Human Services and Consumer Sciences program at Texas Southern is named in her honor.

Iowa State College Thesis Title:  The place of home economics in the curriculum for women of Houston college for Negroes, 1937 

Iowa State University Library Digital Repository Link: https://doi.org/10.31274/rtd-180813-8515

Sources

Homemaking teachers hold annual conference at PV. (1952, Sept.). Panther, Vol. 27(1). Prairie View Agriculture and Mechanical College. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.pvamu.edu/pv-panther-newspapers/850

With recent Prairie View graduates. (1947, April). The Prairie View Standard, Vol. 17(8). Prairie View University. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.pvamu.edu/pv-newspapers/151

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Hunter, Mary Evelyn V. Edwards (M.S., Home Economics, 1931)

Headshot of Mary Evelyn V Hunter

Mary Evelyn V. Edwards Hunter was possibly the first woman of African descent to receive a Master’s degree at Iowa State University.  Prior to enrolling at Iowa State, the 1926 edition of The Prairie lists Hunter as a State Supervisor Home Demonstration Agent. After graduating with a masters degree in Home Economics in 1931, Hunter founded and directed the Division of Home Economics for the Virginia State College for Negroes (now Virginia State University), where she established a home economics graduate program for African American students.

Like a number of other Black graduates of Iowa State, she attended the banquet held by the Iowa State Alumni Association for Frederick D. Patterson’s inauguration as President of Tuskegee in 1935.

Iowa State College Thesis Title: Some effects of home economics training upon the home practices of Negro families in Texas, 1931 

Iowa State University Library Digital Repository Link: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/17671

Sources

Photo Credit: Prairie View A&M University (1926)

1926 The Prairie(p.35)

 https://digitalcommons.pvamu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1033&context=yearbooks

Biography available at  HBCU Connections at Iowa State University :  Mary E. V. Edwards Hunter ( http://hbcuconnections.iastatedigital.org/Mary_E._V._Edwards_Hunter )

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Flowers, Walter Albert (M.S., Agriculture, 1937)

1/2 body shot of Walter Albert Flowers sitting leaning slightly to the left

According to the 1930 Federal Census, Walter was a public school teacher in Wayne, Mississippi, likely at the Rosenwald school there, since he shared a house with four other teachers. He married Mattye Milton Copeland between 1930 and 1933. Mattye gave birth to her daughter Patricia in January 1934 in Kentucky according to Kentucky Birth records, though the 1940 census lists Patricia’s birthplace as Iowa. By 1934, Walter had settled into work as an extension agent.  The Prairie View Standard reported that Professor W. A. Flowers of the Texas Extension Service, was on campus for a conference ( Both Walter and Mattye finished their M.S. degrees in 1937 and were living in Texarkana, Texas, by February of that year, when Walter was listed as a teacher at the Rosenwald school in Corley, Texas, and one of four Area Supervisors of Vocational agriculture in the Negro schools of Texas.

Sources

Photo Credits Tennessee State Yearbook

Outstanding educators attend conferences at Prairie View. (1934, June). The Prairie View standard, 25.10, p. 3. Retrieved from  https://digitalcommons.pvamu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1034&context=pv-newspapers ).

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Crouch, Hubert Branch (M.S., Protozoology, 1930; Ph.D., Zoology, 1936)

Headshot of Hubert Branch Crouch

Hubert Crouch was born 7 December 1906 in Jacksonville, Texas, to George W. Crouch and Mary “Carrie” Crouch. His sister is Geneva Crouch, who also attended Iowa State University. He attended Iowa State for his Master of Science in Protozoology, which he received in 1930, and his Ph.D. in Zoology, with minors in Entomology and Botany, which he completed in 1936. He worked at Kentucky State college as a professor of biology during the time that Rufus B. Atwood, a fellow Iowa State alumnus, was President of the institution. After working at Kentucky State College, Crouch became a professor and Head of the Department of Biology and Director of the Division of Science at Tennessee Agricultural & Industrial State University at Nashville. By 1965 he was the Dean of the Graduate School there, and soon was serving with fellow Iowa State alumnus Walter H. Dabney, who was Dean of Engineering by 1969-70 (US Dept of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education and National Center for Educational Statistics, Education Directory 1969-70 Higher Education, US Government Printing Office, 1970). He founded the National Institute of Science and the Council of Science Teachers, in association with the Kentucky Negro Educational Association.

In 1935 Hubert married Mildred Shipp, whose parents, John and Nellie Shipp, housed Black ISC students at their home in the 1930s and 1940. Mildred’s mother was Nellie Emira Martin, whose parents, Archie and Nancy Chandler Martin, opened their home at 218 Lincoln Way to many Black ISC students. Hubert Crouch and his sister Geneva were two of those students. After living at the Martin House, Hubert moved to 118 Sherman, the home of his future wife’s parents, the Shipps. He and Mildred had multiple children. Hubert died 17 October 1980. After his death, Tennessee State University erected a building known as “Hubert Crouch Hall” in his honor.

Iowa State College Dissertation Title: The animal parasites of the woodchuck (Marmota monax L.) with special reference to the protozoa, 1936 

Iowa State University Catalog Record:https://quicksearch.lib.iastate.edu/permalink/01IASU_INST/174tg9m/alma990007117870102756 

Sources

Photo Credits Kentucky State

https://doi.org/10.2307/2717664

https://www.jstor.org/stable/2717664

https://library3.tnstate.edu/library/bldgs/crouchbldg.htm

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Crutcher, Benjamin (“Ben”) Harrison  (B.S., Dairy Foods and Industry, 1925; M.S., Dairy Husbandry and Comparative Physiology, 1931)

Headshot of Benjamin Harrison Crutcher

Benjamin Harrison Crutcher was born 6 August 1890 in Harrodsburg City, Kentucky, to Silas Crutcher, a plasterer and sometime clergyman, and his wife, Anna (aka Ann or Anne) M. Worrell Crutcher. On 26 April 1918, Benjamin enlisted in the Army. He was discharged 5 July 1919. Crutcher graduated from Tuskegee Institute, Florida A & M College in Tallahassee, Florida, and Iowa State College, where he earned a B.S. in Dairy Foods and Industry in 1925 and an M.S. in Dairy Husbandry and Comparative Physiology in 1931. When Crutcher earned his B.S. in 1925-26, he was one of only 13 Black regular session students at ISC (“A Record,” 1926). His classmates included Compton Chapman, Maurice Thomasson, and Willa Juanita Ewing.

Crutcher married Cleopatra Baker in 1922, while taking some time off from college coursework. As an Iowa State undergraduate, in 1924-25, Crutcher roomed at 2522 Chamberlain, with Holloway Smith, Thomas Whibby, and Harold Tutt.

In 1935, as a Dairyman at Tuskegee Institute, he was listed as an attendee at the banquet held by the Iowa State Alumni Association for Frederick D. Patterson’s inauguration as President of Tuskegee. By 1942, he was Head of the Animal Husbandry Department and assistant to the Director of Agriculture at Georgia State College, Savannah. In a second career, Crutcher worked as a medical technologist for the Veterans Administration in Tuskegee, Alabama, where he died on 3 August 1981. At the time of his death, Crutcher, age 91, was the oldest active member of the Alpha Nu Lambda Chapter (Tuskegee) of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity (“Omega Chapter,” 1981).

Iowa State College Dissertation Title: The animal parasites of the woodchuck (Marmota monax L.) with special reference to the protozoa, 1936 

Iowa State University Catalog Record:https://quicksearch.lib.iastate.edu/permalink/01IASU_INST/174tg9m/alma990007117870102756 

Sources

A record of the Negro at college 1926. (1926, August). The crisis: A record of the darker races, p. 174.

Omega chapter. (1981, Fall). Sphinx 67. p. 82.

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