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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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