Eleanor Gertrude Gogin (March 23, 1885 – February 6, 1967) was an American educator, and a national secretary of the YWCA, in charge of the organization's programming for girls and young women from 1918 to 1927.

Gertrude Gogin
White woman wearing a collared shirt and jacket.
Gertrude Gogin, from a 1922 newspaper.
Born
Eleanor Gertrude Gogin

March 23, 1885
Boston, Massachusetts, US
DiedFebruary 5, 1967(1967-02-05) (aged 81)
Beverly Hills, California, US

Early life edit

Gertrude Gogin was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and lived in Brookline,[1] the daughter of George W. Gogin and Matilda Allen Gogin. Her father worked in the steel industry,[2][3] and her grandfather Thomas Gogin was head of the Norway Iron Works in Massachusetts.[4] She graduated from Vassar College in 1908.[5] In 1910 she earned a master's degree in history at Columbia University.[6]

Career edit

Gogin taught one year (1908–1909) in St. Joseph, Louisiana,[4][7] and at the Baldwin School in Pennsylvania in 1914.[8] Soon after, she was a national secretary of the YWCA. In 1918 she was national head of the Girls' Division, responsible for the organization's wartime "Victory Girls" program.[9] In 1919 Gogin wrote manuals for YWCA programs for various age levels,[10] including the Rainbow Club for schoolgirls,[11] the Girl Reserves for teens,[12] and the Be Square Club for young working women.[13]

She lectured across the United States often.[14][15][16] She addressed a national YWCA meeting in San Francisco in 1922, on the topic of flappers: "Why rail at the flapper? She is as good and as true as any girl of any time. She is but the product of the present and the conditions of the present," she explained.[17] She wrote articles for Rural Manhood,[18] The Church School Journal,[19] The Vassar Miscellany,[20] and other publications.

Gogin resigned from the YWCA in 1927.[21] She returned to school work, and by 1933 became principal of the Santa Barbara Girls' School in California.[6][22] The school closed in 1938; she taught at the Marlborough School in Los Angeles after that.[23] Gogin was president of the Vassar Club of Southern California in 1950,[24] and still on the board of the organization in 1958.[25]

Personal life edit

Gogin and her friend, fellow teacher Minnie Bertha Smith,[26] bought a vacation house together in Carmel in 1931,[27] and spent time there during the winter school holiday in 1936.[28] Gogin was named as Smith's "beloved friend" in a brief notice when Smith died in 1945.[29] Gogin died in 1967, aged 81 years, in Beverly Hills, California. She left a large bequest to Vassar College.[6]

References edit

  1. ^ "New England Girls Prove Real Stars as Students at Vassar". The Boston Globe. June 7, 1908. p. 17. Retrieved September 14, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ "Three Y.W.C.A. Secretaries Will Lecture in Oakland". Oakland Tribune. December 15, 1918. p. 23. Retrieved September 14, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ "George W. Gogin". Star-Gazette. December 14, 1899. p. 5. Retrieved September 14, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ a b "To Teach at St. Joseph, La". Natchitoches Times. September 11, 1908. p. 1. Retrieved September 14, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ The Vassarion. Vol. 21. Vassar College. 1909. p. 268.
  6. ^ a b c "Recent Bequests to Vassar". Vassar Quarterly. 54: 73. April 1, 1969 – via Vassar Newspaper Archives.
  7. ^ College, Vassar (1910). The Fourth General Catalogue of the Officers and Graduates of Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York. 1861-1910. Haight. pp. 291. Gertrude Gogin Boston.
  8. ^ "Alumnae Bulletin". Vassar Miscellany. 43: 382. March 1, 1914 – via Hudson River Valley Heritage, Historical Newspapers.
  9. ^ "The Victory Girls: How Every Girl Can Help in the United War Work Campaign". The Y. W. C. A. Bulletin. November 1, 1918. p. 2. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
  10. ^ "Miss Gertrude Gogin". The y. W. C. A. Bulletin: 3. January 24, 1919.
  11. ^ Gogin, Eleanor Gertrude (1919). The Rainbow Club: A Plan for Grade and Junior High School Girls. Y.W.C.A.
  12. ^ Gogin, Eleanor Gertrude (1919). The Girl Reserves: A Guide for Every Loyal Blue Triangle Girl. Y.W.C.A.
  13. ^ Gogin, Eleanor Gertrude (1919). The be Square Club: A Plan for Young Employed Girls. Y.W.C.A.
  14. ^ "National Officer of YWCA Here". San Diego Union and Daily Bee. August 31, 1922. p. 9. Retrieved September 13, 2019 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  15. ^ "Many to Meet Girls' Executive". The Semi-Weekly Spokesman-Review. November 30, 1924. p. 27. Retrieved September 13, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ "National Leader Addresses Y. W. C. A. Officers' Meeting". The Dayton Herald. December 10, 1925. p. 32. Retrieved September 13, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ "Organizer of Girl Reserves Defends Flappers; Avers She is but a Product of Times". Press Democrat. September 10, 1922. p. 1. Retrieved September 13, 2019 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  18. ^ Gogin, Gertrude (November 1918). "Just Girls". Rural Manhood. 9: 406–409.
  19. ^ Gogin, Gertrude; Heinbaugh, Zelah (May 1923). "The Spirit of the Camp". The Sunday School Journal. May 1923: 263–264.
  20. ^ Gogin, Gertrude (February 1, 1908). "The Women of the Renaissance". Vassar Miscellany. 37: 349–354 – via Vassar Newspaper Archive.
  21. ^ "To Attend Conclave". San Pedro News Pilot. April 22, 1927. p. 5. Retrieved September 13, 2019 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  22. ^ "Santa Barbarans Attend Meeting". The Los Angeles Times. January 25, 1936. p. 27. Retrieved September 13, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ^ Spalding, Deborah (May 16, 1948). "Last Grads Will Note 10th Year Since School Closed". The Los Angeles Times. p. 55. Retrieved September 13, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ^ "Author Slated to Talk Before Vassar Group". The Los Angeles Times. October 3, 1950. p. 42. Retrieved September 13, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ^ "Vassar Director Here". Independent Star-News. October 12, 1958. p. 43. Retrieved September 13, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. ^ Alumni Directory and Ten-year Book: 1891-10. Stanford University. 1910. p. 240.
  27. ^ "Real Estate Transfers". The Californian. July 10, 1931. p. 2. Retrieved September 13, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  28. ^ "In Carmel". The Los Angeles Times. December 31, 1936. p. 22. Retrieved September 13, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  29. ^ "Minnie Bertha Smith". The Los Angeles Times. March 25, 1945. p. 38. Retrieved September 13, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.