Background
Aurelia Henry was born on April 1, 1877 in San Francisco, California.
Aurelia Henry was born on April 1, 1877 in San Francisco, California.
She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1898 and earned a Doctor of Philosophy in English at Yale in 1905.
She was president of Mills College for more than a quarter century and was the first female moderator of the American Unitarian Association. She spent part of her childhood in San jacinto and Escondido, California. Career and honors She taught at Lewiston State Normal School in Idaho from 1903 to 1908, taking one year off to revise her dissertation for publication and to travel abroad as a recipient of an Association of Collegiate Alumnae Fellowship.
In 1914 she became a lecturer in English in the Extension Division of the University of California.
She served from 1916 to 1943 as president of Mills College in Oakland, California, through a period of substantial growth. She was active in local, national and international organizations and lectured widely, often on international cooperation.
She served as president of the American Association of University Women from 1923 to 1927 and helped strengthen that organization significantly. In the 1940s she served as moderator of the American Unitarian Association and on the board of trustees of Starr King School for the Ministry.
She received honorary degrees from the University of California (1919), the University of Southern California (1924), Colorado College (1931), Williams (1937), Mountain.
Holyoke (1937), and Oberlin (1937). Personal life Upon his untimely death in 1914 she was left with two sons to support. The elder son became the American diplomat G.
Aurelia Squier Harwood, the first female president of the Sierra Club, was a first cousin of Aurelia Henry Reinhardt.
Death She died on January 28, 1948 in Palo Alto, California. Her funeral was held at the First Unitarian Society of San Francisco.