In Memoriam - Hilda Wasson

Hilda Crowell Wasson: 1921 - 2008

Glass ceilings didn't stop her: DePaul's College of Commerce named her its first female department head

Hilda Crowell Wasson broke new ground in her profession by becoming one of the first women to receive a doctorate in business education. She later was chosen as the first female department head in DePaul University's College of Commerce, where she taught for more than 25 years.

In the mid-1950s, Mrs. Wasson entered Indiana University's business administration doctorate program when women were not welcome, said her son, Jeffrey. But she had received a master's degree in business administration there, was on the business school faculty and had won a fellowship at the school. "That apparently clinched her admission to the program," her son said. Mrs. Wasson received her doctorate in 1959.

Mrs. Wasson, 87, died Thursday, June 5, in Evanston Hospital of what her son said was a combination of pneumonia and heart failure. She had lived in Evanston for more than 40 years. Mrs. Wasson, born Hilda Crowell, grew up in Morganfield, Ky., and had to make her college choice during the Depression. "She considered music, but chose to go to business school," her son said.

By 1940, she had received an undergraduate degree in accountancy from Bowling Green Business University in Bowling Green, Ky., now the Ford College of Business at Western Kentucky University. She went on to Northwestern University in Evanston to begin work on an MBA. But she interrupted her studies when she married Newton Wasson. After her husband died in a car accident in 1948, Mrs. Wasson and her two young sons returned to live with her parents in Kentucky.

She completed work on her MBA in 1953 at Indiana University and taught marketing at Stetson University in DeLand, Fla., for two years before returning to finish doctoral courses at Indiana. Before she completed her dissertation, she began teaching at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

In 1966, she joined the faculty of DePaul University's College of Commerce, where she taught marketing. She also wrote extensively on a range of business topics, including marketing and finance. In the early 1980s, Mrs. Wasson became head of the marketing department of DePaul's College of Commerce, the first woman to hold that post, media relations manager Robin Florzak said. Mrs. Wasson retired in 1991, but she continued to teach a few courses until 1992.

Mrs. Wasson may have been a pioneer in business, but she also maintained her interest in music, family friend Sidney Friedman said. "She had season tickets to the opera and the symphony and still attended," Friedman said. She passed on her interest in music to her son. "She was a lover of Bach and transmitted a love of the harpsichord and Bach to me," said her son, a professor of music at DePaul. Jeffrey Wasson said his mother was especially delighted by a custom harpsichord in his home that was designed and built to fit with 18th and 19th Century antique furniture collected by Mrs. Wasson's mother.

Whether in business or music, Mrs. Wasson always saw education as the key to accomplishment, Jeffrey Wasson said. "She always thought if you didn't really have a strong educational background, it was difficult."

Mrs. Wasson also is survived by three grandchildren. Another son, Donald, died in 1997. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. June 28 in Vail Chapel, Northwestern University, 1870 Sheridan Rd., Evanston.

Chicago Tribune, June 16, 2008|By Graydon Megan, SPECIAL TO THE TRIBUNE