Sarah Ethel Thomas Curwood (January 23, 1916 – October 9, 1990) was an American educator, college professor, activist, and tree farmer.

Early life and education

Sarah Ethel Thomas was born in

Binghamton, New York Binghamton () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the conflue ...

, the daughter of Maurice Thomas and Sarah (or Sadie) Dorsey Thomas. She graduated from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

with a bachelor's degree in economics in 1937. She earned a master's degree in education from

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

in 1947, with a thesis titled "Social relations of three year old children in a nursery school, a study of the techniques used by the teachers to influence social relations". She completed doctoral studies at

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...

in 1956, with a dissertation titled "Role Expectation as a Factor in the Relationship Between Mother and Teacher".

Career

Curwood taught early childhood education courses at

Harvard Graduate School of Education The Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) is the education school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1920, it was the first school to grant the EdD degree and the first Harvard school ...

from 1952 to 1955. She also taught sociology courses at Antioch College,

Rhode Island College Rhode Island College (RIC) is a public college in Providence, Rhode Island. The college was established in 1854 as the Rhode Island State Normal School, making it the second oldest institution of higher education in Rhode Island after Brown Uni ...

University of New Hampshire The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant college in Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College, mo ...

, and Knoxville College. She retired from college teaching in 1984. Curwood taught preschool in Jamaica Plain, passed the Boston exam for municipal playground workers in 1942, and in the late 1960s was a training officer for the Head Start program in New Hampshire and Vermont. She was active in the Boston

Urban League The National Urban League, formerly known as the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes, is a nonpartisan historic civil rights organization based in New York City that advocates on behalf of economic and social justice for African Am ...

, the Massachusetts Mothers' Health Council,

Planned Parenthood The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), or simply Planned Parenthood, is a nonprofit organization that provides reproductive health care in the United States and globally. It is a tax-exempt corporation under Internal Reve ...

of Massachusetts,

Girl Scouts Girl Guides (known as Girl Scouts in the United States and some other countries) is a worldwide movement, originally and largely still designed for girls and women only. The movement began in 1909 when girls requested to join the then-grassroot ...

, Women Radio Operators of New England, and the

American Friends Service Committee The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Religious Society of Friends (''Quaker'') founded organization working for peace and social justice in the United States and around the world. AFSC was founded in 1917 as a combined effort by Am ...

. She served on the Massachusetts Committee on Children and Youth. Curwood also owned and ran a tree farm and dog kennels in

Nottingham, New Hampshire Nottingham is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 5,229 at the 2020 census, up from 4,785 at the 2010 census. It is the location of Pawtuckaway State Park. History Incorporated in 1722 by Lieutenant G ...

, and was a member of the Rockingham County Forest Advisory Board.

Personal life

Sarah Thomas married businessman James L. Curwood in 1936. They had two children, Sarah and Stephen (later known as journalist

Steve Curwood Stephen Thomas Curwood (born in Roxbury, Massachusetts on December 11, 1947) is a journalist, author, public radio personality and actor. In 1970, as a writer for the ''Boston Phoenix'', Steve broke the story that Polaroid Corporation, Polaroid's ...

). Sarah Thomas Curwood was widowed in 1949, when her husband died by suicide. She died in 1990, aged 74 years, in Nottingham, New Hampshire. A large collection of her papers are in the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, and a smaller collection at Cornell University. Her granddaughter, Anastasia C. Curwood, used Curwood's papers as primary sources for her book, ''Stormy Weather: Middle-Class African-American Marriages Between the Two World Wars'' (University of North Carolina Press 2010).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Curwood, Sarah Thomas 1916 births 1990 deaths People from Binghamton, New York Cornell University alumni Boston University School of Education alumni Radcliffe College alumni Knoxville College faculty Rhode Island College faculty American educators American Quakers People from Nottingham, New Hampshire American sociologists