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I am sad to report that Mary Cookingham died March 12, 2001, at the age of 
49.  Mary received her BA in 1973 from Cornell University, after also 
attending Wells College. After working as an Analyst for the Cost of Living 
Council in Washington, D. C., she earned her Ph.D. from the University of 
California, Berkeley, in 1980.  Mary was one of the first women hired by 
Michigan State's Economics Department, and she was the first woman to whom 
the department granted tenure. 
 
Although she experienced the effects of Multiple Sclerosis for over two 
decades, she always viewed it as a great annoyance and never as a way to 
define herself.  Instead, Dr. Cookingham researched and wrote on the 
history of women's work, examining the role of married women, mothers, and 
female college graduates in the workplace during the late 19th and early 
20th centuries.  Her interest in women's work led her into research on an 
earlier generation of women economists.  She documented the presence of 
women in the economics department at UC Berkeley early in the 20th century. 
 These pioneering Berkeley women addressed questions in social economics 
and social reform that were largely forgotten and neglected by the 
economics profession after this generation of women was pushed to the 
margins of the profession. 
 
She was a devoted and attentive mother, encouraging her daughters to rise 
to any challenge. She loved traveling, theater, and Michigan State 
basketball. She became a better teacher as she adjusted to M.S., because it 
forced her to expect students to participate more fully in their own 
education by their working out problems in front of the class. As a measure 
of her devotion to the classroom, Dr. Cookingham continued to teach until 
weeks before her final hospitalization. 
 
She is survived by her husband, her childhood companion, and her closest 
friend, David Bailey, who is a member of M.S.U. History Department. She 
also leaves behind her two remarkable daughters, Elizabeth and Jean Bailey; 
her parents, Margaret and George Cookingham of Kenmore, NY; her brother and 
sister-in-law, Robert and Lee Cookingham of Webster, NY; her sister and 
brother-in-law, Carol Cookingham and Gerry DiBello of Westford, MA; and her 
sister and her companion, Joan Cookingham and Jim McManus of Waltham, MA; 
as well as a wealth of dear friends across the country. 
 
She lived in this world as she left it, with courage and grace. 
 
The family requests that contributions can be made to the Walter and 
Pauline Adams Scholarship Fund, c/o Michigan State University, Development 
Fund, 4700 Hagadorn Rd., Suite 220, East Lansing, MI,  48823-9982, in 
memory of Dr. Cookingham. 
 
Margaret C. Levenstein 
University of Massachusetts 
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