From collection Member List
Born on November 26, 1854, Founder Ida Mabel (May) Fuller was raised in Albion, Maine, a small town near Waterville. As a teen, Ida attended the Waterville Classical Institute, completing the “Ladies Preparatory Course” with fellow Sigma Kappa Founders Lizzie G. Hoag and Louise H. Coburn.
When Colby College began admitting women in 1871 - two years before Ida completed her preparatory coursework - Ida was thrilled about the opportunity now open to her. Ida May was known as a vigorous, dynamic girl who would develop into a social-minded woman. Unfortunately, ill health forced her to leave college in her junior year and she never graduated.
Seeking a drier climate and the benefits it would have on her health, Ida moved to Kansas in 1880. There, she met and married Dr. Jonathan B. Pierce. Ten years into their marriage, Dr. Pierce died, but that didn’t leave Ida May at a loss for interest and purpose. She would become a successful business woman and vice president and director of a Kansas bank. Perhaps her greatest achievement was founding the Girls’ Hotel in Kansas City, a hotel that had affordable rates, allowing lower-income women to stay there. Deeply interested in the issue of food conservation, Ida Fuller Pierce travelled around the country lecturing on the subject during World War I and organized supply depots for the American Red Cross.
Ida May Fuller Pierce died on September 6, 1930 at the age of 75. She is buried in the Greenwood Cemetery in Eureka, Kansas.
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