Caroline Marmon Fesler

Fesler served as a board member of the Herron School of Art for over thirty years (1916-1947).  She was President of the Art Association of Indianapolis, the organization that originally founded Herron's school and museum.  Fesler was the wife of a prominent Indianapolis lawyer and made several generous donations to Herron during her lifetime and posthumously.  This included a 1928 donation of $200,000 to build a new home for the art school. 

Fesler served on several prominent Herron committees, including the Fine Arts Committee and the Art School Committee.  She was the mastermind behind the Board's decision to split the art school from the Herron Museum, and led the search for the school's first director, Donald Mattison.  Fesler even paid Mattison's initial salary.  Fesler resigned her seat on the Board in 1947 due to illness and died December 28, 1960.

Anne Mitchem-Davis

When Anne Mitchem-Davis graduated from the IU School of Nursing in 1953, she became the school's first African American graduate.  Mitchem-Davis went on to lead a distinguished career in nursing, beginning as a school nurse for the Marion County Department of Health and Hospitals and eventually becoming Assistant Dean of the College of Nursing at Howard University. 

Lauranne Brown Sams

Lauranne Brown Sams was the first African American faculty member at the IU School of Nursing (1958-1973).  She was a leader among nursing faculty during her years at IU and went on to become Dean and Professor of Nursing at Tuskegee University's School of Nursing.  In 1971, Sams founded the National Black Nurses Association and served as its first president until 1977.

At the IU School of Nursing, Sams was a leader in the curriculum development and program evaluation.  She also served the IUPUI community on the Equal Opportunity Committee, Salary Equalization Committee, Campus Development Planning, Metropolitan Affairs, and Science & Humanities Advisory Committee.  In the early 1970s, shortly before she left IU to become Dean at Tuskegee, Sams was appointed by Governor Bowen to the Indiana State Board of Nurse Registration & Nursing Education.

Lucy Taggart

The daughter of Indianapolis mayor Thomas Taggart, Lucy Taggart served as a board member of the Herron School of Art from 1915 to 1943, and as an unpaid professor at Herron from 1931 to 1943.  She taught painting and portraiture to countless students.  As a member of the Board, Taggart helped to steer the direction of the school and sat on an important committee to find Herron School of Art's first director.  The board hired Donald Mattison in 1933.

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Edna Mann Shover

Edna Mann Shover served as principal of the Herron Art School from 1921 to 1933.  During these years, Herron was a freestanding school and was not affiliated with Indiana University.  As principal, Shover guided Herron through a period of financial hardship.  Funding for the school dramatically decreased during World War I, and Shover helped the school recover profits by adding practical courses in drafting, map-making, and educational therapy for wounded soldiers.  She later saw the school through hard times following the deaths of several prominent board members and resignation of Herron director Harold Brown.

Clara Hester

Clara Hester served as the first director of the Indiana University Normal College.  She joined the staff of Normal College in 1922, and became a full professor in 1924.  From 1934-1941, she served as vice president of the college.  The Normal College was absorbed by Indiana University in 1941, and Hester became Assistant Dean of the Indiana University School of Physical Education.  She was later named Director of the Indiana University Normal College.

As Assistant Dean and Director of the Normal College, Hester established IU's physical education curriculum at IUPUI.  She was also a pioneer in methods of physical education, and in 1933 pioneered camping as a part of physical education.  She took summer camps to Camp Brosius in Wisconsin.  Hester was a charter member of the Indiana section of the American Camping Association and served a term as president of the Indiana State Physical Education Association.  She retired as director in 1963 and continued teaching until 1968.

Winifred Kahmann

Kahmann was hired in 1924 by the Indianapolis Junior League to establish an Occupational Therapy Program at Riley Hospital for Children.  The Occupational Therapy Program became a free-standing school at IUPUI in 1934, and she served as Director of Occupational Therapy and Physio-Therapy for all IU hospitals from 1934 to 1959.  Kahmann also coordinated the IU cerebral palsy clinic and established a burn clinic.  Kahmann was a pioneer occupational therapist and many students traveled to IU in order to study under her direction. 

Margaret Cook

Margaret Cook was an Associate Professor of French at the IU Extension campus and later IUPUI from 1946 to 1973.  Cook was one of the first foreign language professors at the Extension campus, and in the 1940s and 1950s she was highly influential in the growth of the school's foreign language program.  She developed much of the early curriculum for the program and taught courses in both French and Spanish.  Cook also pioneered special courses in foreign language geared towards Americans planning to travel abroad.

With the opening of Cavanaugh Hall on IUPUI's campus in 1971, Cook developed a modern foreign language laboratory and designed the school's new French curriculum.  She served as department chair of Foreign Languages from 1971 to 1972.  Cook retired in 1973 and died in 1984.  She deeded the department of Foreign Languages funds to establish its first study abroad scholarship.