Virginia Yapp Trotter was Assistant Secretary of Education from 1974 to 1977, under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.
Background
She was born Virginia Yapp on November 29, 1921, in Boise, Idaho, and was raised in Manhattan, Kansas, where her father Rockford Glenn Yapp worked as the State Entomologist for Kansas and a professor of entomology at Kansas State University.
Education
Bachelor of Science, Kansas State University, 1943. Master of Science, Kansas State University, 1949. Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, 1959.
Career
The position was included in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare at the time. Trotter was the first woman to hold the United States. government"s highest education post, although the position did not become cabinet-level until 1979. Trotter worked as a university administrator before and after serving as Assistant Secretary.
As president of academic affairs at the University of Georgia, she intervened in 1981 to allow nine football players at to pass a remedial English course, allowing them to play against Pittsburgh in the 1982 Sugar Bowl, which resulted in a scandal at the school.
She earned a doctorate from Ohio State University in 1960. She never remarried.
Trotter began her administrative career at the University of Utah in 1948 as director of the university"s home management laboratory.
From 1950 to 1955 she served as head of the Home Economics and Management Division at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. From 1955 to 1963 she worked as chairman of home economics at the University of Vermont.
Trotter returned to the University of Nebraska in 1963 and served as dean of the College of Home Economics at the school until 1972, and vice chancellor for academic affairs from 1972 to 1974.
After serving as Assistant Secretary of Education from 1974 to 1977, she returned to academia as the first president for academic affairs at the University of Georgia. Georgia scandal
While serving as president of academic affairs at Georgia, Trotter was implicated in intervening in 1981 to alter grades for nine football players so that they would pass a remedial English course. Kemp was relieved of duties, and then filed suit against the university, Trotter and another administrator.
The total judgment was later reduced to $1.08 million.
As a result of the scandal, Trotter was removed from her position as president of academic affairs and reassigned. The University of Georgia also stopped admitting athletes who were "partial qualifiers" under the National Collegiate Athletic Association"s admission requirements.
Achievements
Membership
Member advisory council New York State College Home Economics, Cornell University, Ithaca, 1967-1971. Member Governor's Committee on Employment of Handicapped, State of Nebraska, since 1971. Member North-East Georgia council Girl Scouts United States of America, 1977-1983.
Member American Home Economics Association (vice president 1970-1972), Georgia Home Economics Association (president since 1977), National Association State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (executive committee Council for Academy Affairs since 1982, national advisory committee on accreditation since 1981), Nebraska Heart Association (chairman board directors 1970-1972).
Connections
Daughter of Rockford Glenn and Lena Idylla (Topliff) Yapp. M. Robert Talbot Trotter, July 1943 (deceased). 1 son, Robert Talbot.