Thais Margaret Plaisted (January 14, 1898 – February 3, 1983) was an American writer, political scientist, parliamentarian, and educator.

Early life

Thais Margaret Plaisted was born in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, and raised in Boise, Idaho and Boston, the daughter of Paul Jones "Joe" Plaisted and Annie Margaret Ryan Plaisted. She graduated from Brookline High School in Massachusetts, then from

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 1920. She earned a master's degree at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

. Her master's thesis, based on her research at the Huntington Library and other collections, was titled "The Embargo of 1757, with reference to the Trade between the Northern British-American Colonies and the British West Indies and the Neutral Islands" (1942).

Career

Plaisted taught school in Idaho and at

Hollywood High School Hollywood High School is a four-year public secondary school in the Los Angeles Unified School District, located at the intersection of North Highland Avenue and West Sunset Boulevard in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California. Histo ...

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. She wrote textbooks, and she lectured on historical and political topics to women's groups in Southern California, Sometimes with color slides for illustration. She represented the South Pacific Section at the 1939 convention of the

American Association of University Women The American Association of University Women (AAUW), officially founded in 1881, is a non-profit organization that advances equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, and research. The organization has a nationwide network of 170,000 ...

, held in Denver. She was press chairman of the Los Angeles County chapter of the California Federation of Women's Clubs, and active in the California History and Landmarks Club, and the

Daughters of the American Revolution The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) is a lineage-based membership service organization for women who are directly descended from a person involved in the United States' efforts towards independence. A non-profit group, they promote ...

. Plaisted wrote articles on the finer points of

parliamentary procedure Parliamentary procedure is the accepted rules, ethics, and customs governing meetings of an assembly or organization. Its object is to allow orderly deliberation upon questions of interest to the organization and thus to arrive at the sense or t ...

, and taught classes in the subject to adults and youth in the 1940s and 1950s. She served as a parliamentarian for various women's clubs in Los Angeles, helped to organize the Los Angeles chapter of the National Association of Parliamentarians, and for the White House Conference on Families in 1980.

Publications

* ''An Integrated Course in Art Appreciation'' (1935) * "Origins of National Nominating Committees and Platforms" (1939) * " Juan Fernandez: Robinson Crusoe Island" (1942) * "The Unpublished Papers of

Frederick Jackson Turner Frederick Jackson Turner (November 14, 1861 – March 14, 1932) was an American historian during the early 20th century, based at the University of Wisconsin until 1910, and then Harvard University. He was known primarily for his frontier thes ...

" (1943) * "Five Famous Lincoln Statues" (1943) * "The Importance of International Law in Our Thinking Today" (1944) * "General Henry M. Robert: Parliamentarian" (1957) * "The Vice Presidency of the United States" (1959) * "International Law for Space" (1964) * "The Quorum" (1965) * ''Parliamentary Law Exercises'' (1967) * "The Proviso: An Enigma" (1978) * "Thomas Jefferson: Parliamentarian" (1978) * "The When, Why, and Where of the Second" (1978)

Personal life

Plaisted died in Los Angeles in 1983, aged 85 years. Her grave is with her mother's, at Forest Lawn Cemetery in

Glendale, California Glendale is a city in the San Fernando Valley and Verdugo Mountains regions of Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, California, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. Census the population was 196,543, up from ...

References

External links

"Officers and Directors of Southern California Press Club, 1952"
a photo in the University of Southern California Digital Library, via Calisphere {{DEFAULTSORT:Plaisted, Thais M. 1898 births 1983 deaths Radcliffe College alumni American educators 20th-century American women writers University of Southern California alumni Clubwomen Brookline High School alumni