PenPoints Fall 2008 / 6

So We May All Be Heard
By Marlene Cook, historian

Helen Ekin Starrett was the second president of IWPA serving from 1893 to 1894. Records do not explain why her term was up after one year, but they do reveal that she was a very busy woman.

She was an author, editor, publisher, educator, inventor,

reporter, business woman, suffragette, Temperance member, business woman, volunteer and mentor. She was the only woman in the nation who attended both the first National Woman Suffrage Association convention in 1869 and its last in 1920.

She was founder of Kenwood School for Girls and later founder and principal for nine years of the Starrett School for Girls, both located in the Kenwood Community of Chicago. Founded in 1884, Starrett School was a large day school with accommodations for 10 resident pupils providing classes from kindergarten to college preparation.

Born Helen Martha Ekin on September 19, 1840, in Pittsburgh, Penn., to Rev. John Ekin DD and Esther Fell Lee, she was the oldest of three daughters. She married the Rev. William Starrett in February 1864 and they had three sons.

Those sons became famous in their own right as owners of the construction firm, Starrett Brothers Inc and Ekin in New York City. They were responsible for the erection of the Flatiron Building, Empire State Building, Pennsylvania Railroad Station and the Plaza, Biltmore and Commodore hotels. Prior to forming Starrett Construction, son Paul was president of the



George A. Fuller Company in Chicago where under his supervision the Bellevue Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia and the Lincoln Memorial in Washington were erected.

In Melville E. Stone’s book, Fifty Years a Journalist, he wrote, “Helen Ekin Starrett wrote with a masculine pen and dealt brilliantly with almost every conceivable topic.”

Roseland Rosenberg, speaker at Barnard College Commencement Ceremonies in 2002 titled her address, “After College What?” after Starrett’s book of the same title.

She said, “Starrett described what she called the ‘blank nothingness’ that a young woman confronted upon receiving her bachelor’s degree. What came after college? students wondered. They had no adequate answer, Starrett lamented. Brothers might go on to law or medical school; they might go into public service or business; they might enter the ministry or academe. A woman could pursue none of these paths. She could do only the things for which a college education was not necessary – return home, teach, or marry. But these choices no longer seemed enough.”

Thanks to women like Helen Ekin Starrett, today’s woman has so many more choices. There is nothing she can’t do. Listen to her roar!

Starrett’s books are not copyrighted and can be downloaded
from the Internet.

NFPW CONFERENCE
Continued from pages three / four

Reach out and invite prospective members to an upcoming IWPA event! A personal invitation from a fellow writer, author, or someone in the same profession as you is difficult to resist. Spread the word by extending them an invitation and an application form. If a new member joins or a member renews before January 1, 2009, they will receive membership at the 2008 rate of $78 for the rest of 2008 and all of 2009. (With the new year, the price of dues goes up to $98).

Should you have questions or need a brochure please contact Marianne Wolf-Astrauskas, IWPA Membership Chair at mwolfastro@aol.com

Other IWPA members attending the conference included Cindy Cruz, Val Ensalaco, Barbara Land and Pam McKuen.

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IWPA FOUNDED IN 1885                                      IN THIS ISSUE:

FOUNDED IN 1885

 

Fall, 2008

PenPoints

Page1

Did We
Dream Big Enough

Page2

NFPW Conference
Musings

Page 3

Blogging for Business
and Inspiration

Page 5

So May We

All Be Heard

Page 6

Members In

The News

Page 8

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