Professor Lora Doris “Dee” Garrison may have taken the long road getting into academia and onto the Banks of the Raritan, but her impact at the University will likely last even longer.
Garrison, who died in her sleep during the summer, was a pioneer in women’s studies and an expert on the ’60s and the peace and labor movement, according the Department of History Web site. She taught at the University for more than 33 years, was the co-creator of the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies and later an acting program director.
“She is a creation of feminism in the U.S. but she also helped shape it,” said Temma Kaplan, a University professor of history. “Her curiosity, her intelligence and her brilliance allowed her to shape things that never would have been done before.”
Garrison was the author of several influential books on women and peace, including the Pulitzer-Prize nominated “Mary Heaton Vorse: The Life of an American Insurgent,” a biography recounting the life of a fiery labor journalist, feminist and women’s rights advocate, according to the Web site.
But unlike many of her colleagues, Garrison did not take the direct route into academia, said Institute for Women’s Leadership Director Mary Hartman.
Garrison married young at the age of 19, and by the age of 22, had two children.
“These were the mid-1950s, and I was a full-time housewife and mother,” Garrison said during a 2005 retirement speech. “Like so many middle class women of that time, I often felt lonely and bored.”
But in 1963, her life changed after reading Betty Friedan’s “The Feminist Mystique.”
“I know all the jokes about that, and I also know the historical studies that have rightly debunked both Friedan and the impact of her book … still, it is true,” Garrison said. “I was one of those thousands of previously befuddled women who read it, experienced a life-changing ‘click!’ and forged on to call myself a feminist and to win a degree, a divorce and a job.”
After receiving her Bachelor of the Arts in history from the Fullerton State College in California and, later, her Ph.D. in American history from the University of California-Irvine, Garrison joined the newly-formed Livingston College in 1972 and remained with the University until her retirement in 2005, according to the Web site.
Once she made it into the world of academia, Hartman said she treasured every moment of it.
“Academics very often like to complain about their lot for one reason or another, but Dee would have none of it,” Hartman said. “She regarded being a scholar as absolutely the best professional career in the world.”
During her time at the University, Garrison’s research ranged from professionalizing and feminizing the public librarianship with the “Apostles of Culture: the Public Librarian and American Society 1876-1920” published in 1979 to her 2006 work “Bracing for Armageddon: Why Civil Defense Never Worked,” according to the Web site.
Her work examined the role of women’s civil defense protests of the government’s plans for mass evacuation, protective shelter and emergency relief in the case of a nuclear attack, according to the site.
Dorothy Sue Cobble, a professor of labor studies and history, said Garrison had a gift for narrative that helped make history more accessible to readers.
“She writes in a very lyrical way [and] in a very provocative way that makes you experience the events and the people she is talking about,” Cobble said. “She thought a lot about how people should shape a story so that people would be interested in it.”
But beyond this research, Garrison was also a proud activist, one of few professors who have been as active outside of the classroom as she was in it, Hartman said.
Garrison was heavily involved in the peace movement, by being an active member of the Board of Directors of the Peace History Society and by attending numerous anti-war rallies, said History Professor Allen Howard in an e-mail correspondence.
“In her politics, she helped alert citizens to how leaders misinform and mislead citizens about war, its real costs and its consequences,” Howard said.
Yet it was perhaps in her professorial role where Garrison made her greatest impact at the University.
Garrison stressed student participation in the classroom and tried to create an environment where students could learn from each other, Cobble said.
Many former students sent in written remembrances, a lot of them stressing Garrison’s support in helping them improve their writing and analytical skills and even think their way through tough personal and academic problems, Howard said.
“She was critical in a positive way, always demanding students [to] stretch themselves and reach their potential,” Howard said.
Yet, it is not students alone who learned from Garrison. All four professors said Garrison influenced the way they teach or even think in one way or another.
“I was given [a] boost of intellectual energy by listening to her, watching her motivate a class and exchanging ideas with her,” Howard said. “She could challenge you to think more.”
Kaplan said the University has one of the strongest women’s studies and women’s history programs in the United States and even the world, and he believes Garrison is a major reason for that.
“I think we will miss her,” Kaplan said.
Co-creator of Women's Studies leaves 33-year legacy
Published: Monday, November 2, 2009
Updated: Monday, November 2, 2009
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