All Student Biographies

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Simond, Ada Marie DeBlanc-Yerwood (M.S. Home Economics Education & Child Development, 1936)

Headshot of Ada Marie DeBlanc-Yerwood Simond

Ada was an advocate.  She received her B.A. from Tillotson College, where she would later become Head of the Economics Department after receiving her M.S. at Iowa State College.  She never received a formal education up until she started auditing at Austin Samuel Houston College She was then able to take exams to receive the course equivalents.  She would become a local legend in Austin advocating the health of many and well-known by her later married name “Ada D. Simond.”

In later life, Simond was inducted into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame in 1986.  After a career as a teacher, she worked as a public health representative until retirement and then proceeded to volunteer for food banks and other local organizations, write children’s books, and lead in the preservation of African-American history in Austin, Texas. 

Iowa State College Thesis Title: Certain housing conditions and activities of Negro girls enrolled in federally aided schools in Texas as one index of their educational needs, 1936 

Iowa State University Catalog Record:https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/17754

Sources

Photo Credit Texas State Historical Association

Biography available at  HBCU Connections at Iowa State University :  Ada M. DeBlanc-Yerwood ( http://hbcuconnections.iastatedigital.org/Ada_M._DeBlanc-Yerwood )

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Perry, Benjamin Luther, Jr. (M.S., Agricultural Economics, 1935)

Headshot of Benjamin Luther Perry

Benjamin Luther Perry, Jr., was born in Eatonville, Florida, on 27 February 1918 to parents Benjamin Luther Perry, Sr., and Annie Lee Perry. He received a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Education from Florida A&M and a Master’s in Agricultural Economics from Iowa State College in 1942. He enlisted in the US Army in 1943 and was discharged in 1946. He married Helen Neomah (Shown as “Naomi” on Marriage Certificate) Harrison 12 August 1944 in Monroe, North Carolina.  After serving in the Army, he completed a Ph.D. in Land Economics at Cornell University. He was struck by a car on 10 March 1997 and died eleven days later, on 21 Mar 1997, in Tallahassee, Florida.

Iowa State College Dissertation Title: Economics of agronomic responses to lime and phosphate on 48 Iowa farm unit-test demonstration farms, 1937-1941 

Iowa State University Catalog Record:https://quicksearch.lib.iastate.edu/permalink/01IASU_INST/174tg9m/alma990001486320102756 

Iowa State College Dissertation Title: Present status of Agricultural Departments in 17 Negro land-grant colleges, 1935

Iowa State University Catalog Record:https://quicksearch.lib.iastate.edu/permalink/01IASU_INST/174tg9m/alma990008958610102756

Sources

Biography available at  HBCU Connections at Iowa State University :  Benjamin L. Perry, Jr.  ( http://hbcuconnections.iastatedigital.org/Benjamin_L._Perry,_Jr. )

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Stubblefield, Malcolm J.  (Two-Year Agriculture Certificate, 1924)

Headshot of Malcolm Stubblefield

Malcolm Jerome Stubblefield was born in Sioux City, Iowa, on 10 May 1898. His parents were Clarence and Camelia Stubblefield. He was briefly enlisted in the U.S. Military, enlisting in the Army from 28 October 1918 to 13 December 1918. He went to Iowa State College for two years, leaving in 1924. He then moved to New York City, where he worked for the New York Botanical Garden. He was well known for his public garden displays and his skills as a landscape gardener were highly praised. He died on 2 November 1980.

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Terrell, Evanel Elizabeth Renfrow (Attended ISC 1926-1929)

Evanel Elizabeth Renfrow was born in 1908 in Red Wing, Minnesota. She grew up in Grinnell, Iowa, where she graduated from Grinnell High School in 1926. Renfrow started her Bachelor’s degree coursework in Home Economics at Iowa State that fall but left without completing coursework (Kaiser, 2020). She finished her B.S. degree at the University of Iowa before earning a Master’s degree in Nutrition and Dietetics from that school in 1935. Beyond her academic accomplishments in Iowa, she completed several fellowships at the University of Chicago and the Freedman’s Institute in Washington, D.C.

Renfrow taught at multiple HBCUs, including Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri; Tuskegee University; Florida A&M University; and Savannah State University. At both Lincoln University and Savannah State University she established chapters of the African American sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha. The majority of her professional career was spent working at Savannah State University, where she served as chairperson of the Home Economics Department for two decades. Retiring in 1976, she moved to Chicago and later passed away in 1994. She and her husband, Carl C. Terrell, are buried in Beaufort National Cemetery in South Carolina.

Sources

Photo Credit: Grinnell College. (1926). The Grinnellian.

Kaiser, Daniel H. (2020). Grinnell stories: African Americans of early Grinnell. Grinnell, IA: Grinnell History Museum.

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