Background
Born in Portage County, Wisconsin on 1 March 1863 in a log cabin, she was the daughter of William Dopp, one of the first white settlers in what at the time was a wilderness area.
Born in Portage County, Wisconsin on 1 March 1863 in a log cabin, she was the daughter of William Dopp, one of the first white settlers in what at the time was a wilderness area.
She descended from a long line of New Yorkers, scattered also across Connecticut and upstate New York as well as the Midwest, and who displayed a marked taste for education over the generations. She grew up in the area known then as "Dopp Neighborhood" and attended the one room "Dopp School" in what is now in the town of Belmont, in Portage County, surrounded by a large family and the experience of her early years in a farm near the wilderness was to mark her for her life. She started her career as a teacher in her hometown.
An avid reader and a lifelong learner, she became fascinated with the study of anthropology.
An unusually enterprising and active woman for her time, she attended several universities in Wisconsin and Illinois and earned several degrees, including Doctorates in Philosophy and Education. She was a public school teacher at first and a university professor later.
She taught in universities in Wisconsin, Utah and Illinois. While there, she was instrumental in designing and implementing correspondence courses for teachers in the public school systems
She was listed for several years in Who"s Who in America and, after her death, in Who Was Who in America for years.
Katharine Elizabeth Dopp died in Chicago, Illinois on 14 May 1944. She had never married. According to testimonials from her former students, she was a beloved, dedicated teacher.
