“My dear Mr. Brown:

              The Fisk Agency has just notified me of a vacancy in your new junior college for an instructor of chemistry and biology.  Please consider me an applicant for the position.”

So begins a five page, hand-written letter to Mr. Timothy O. Brown, Superintendent of the Ouachita Parish School Board from Kathryn M. Wolfe, Head of Chemistry at Galloway College in Searcy, Arkansas.  Later that year, Ms. Wolfe was hired to serve as one of the first faculty of the Ouachita Parish Junior College (OPJC).

Kathryn Matilda Wolfe was born in Fremont, Ohio on 2 April 1896.  After earning her A.B. (1924) and M.A. (1926) from Kansas University, she became Head of Chemistry at St. Mary’s College, Leavenworth, KS until 1927.  She later was appointed Professor of Chemistry and Head of Biology at Highland College, Highland, KS (197-28) before taking a job as Professor and Head of Chemistry at Galloway College, Searcy, AR.  She served for three years at Galloway before taking the job at OPJC, which eventually became the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

As her application letter indicates, she was informed of the position at OPJC by the Fisk Teaching Agency, located on Jackson Street in Chicago.  At the time of her application, Ms. Wolfe was starting her doctoral studies at The Ohio State University.  She would serve as Professor of Biology and Chemistry at OPJC from 1931 through 1940, while simultaneously working towards her doctorate.  She earned her Ph.D. in colloid chemistry from Ohio State in 1938.  Dr. Wolfe left OPJC in 1940 for a research position at Ohio State (1940-41), followed by stints at the Florida State College for Women, Tallahassee (1942-43) and St. Mary-of-the-Woods College, IN (1943-44).  She joined the corporate world briefly to be a literature searcher for Commercial Solvents Corporation, Terra Haute, IN (1944-45), an associate chemist for Wakeman General Hospital at Camp Atterbury, Edinburgh, IN (1944), and a research record coordinator at Eli Lily and Company, Indianapolis, IN (1945-48).  She returned to academia in 1948 as head of the Department of Zoology at Northern Montana College, Havre, MT, where she worked on the adsorption at crystal solution interfaces, the effect of surface active agents on electrodeposition of nickel, and the correlation of chemical structure with pharmacologic properties.

Click the images below for larger versions or to view the associated files.

Application photograph of Kathryn M. Wolfe.	Telegram from K.M. Wolfe to T.O. Brown regarding her application.	Application letter from K.M. Wolfe to T.O. Brown.

If you have any additional information regarding Dr. Wolfe, please contact us.