Dorothy Schwieder (November 28, 1933 – August 13, 2014) was an American

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

biographer Biographers are authors who write an account of another person's life, while autobiographers are authors who write their own biography. Biographers Countries of working life: Ab=Arabia, AG=Ancient Greece, Al=Australia, Am=Armenian, AR=Ancient Rome ...

, and

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...

. She joined the faculty of

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the ...

in 1966, becoming the first woman to be appointed as a professor in the Department of History. Schwieder authored a

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...

and biography the late U.S. Senator George McGovern, her former college professor. A native of South Dakota, much of her research and writings focused on the

history of Iowa Native Americans in the United States resided in what is now Iowa for thousands of years. The written history of Iowa begins with the proto-historic accounts of Native Americans by explorers such as Marquette and Joliet in the 1680s. Until the ea ...

, including the state's

Amish The Amish (; pdc, Amisch; german: link=no, Amische), formally the Old Order Amish, are a group of traditionalist Anabaptist Christian church fellowships with Swiss German and Alsatian origins. They are closely related to Mennonite churc ...

communities.

Biography

Schwieder was born Dorothy Hubbard on November 28, 1933, in

Presho, South Dakota Presho is a small city in Lyman County, South Dakota, Lyman County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 472 at the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census. History Presho was laid out in 1905, and named in honor of J. S. Presho, a cat ...

, where she was also raised. She was the ninth of her family's ten children. She married Elmer Schwieder (September 6, 1925 – December 25, 2005) in 1955, with whom she had two children, Diane Schwieder Risius and David Schwieder. Elmer Schwieder was a professor of

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...

at Iowa State University. In 1954, she received her

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...

and

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

from

Dakota Wesleyan University Dakota Wesleyan University (DWU) is a private Methodist university in Mitchell, South Dakota. It was founded in 1885 and is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. The student body averages slightly fewer than 800 students. The campus of th ...

, where she studied under then-professor, George McGovern. She began her graduate studies in 1964 at Iowa State University, where she obtained her M.A. in history in 1968. Scwieder completed her

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...

in history from the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 col ...

in 1981. Schwieder joined Dakota Wesleyan University in 1960 as a part-time instructor. She then became a part-time professor at Iowa State University in 1966. Dorothy Schwieder became the first female appointed professor within the Department of History. She was also the history department's only, full-time female professor for nearly twenty years. She retired in 2001. Schwieder died on August 13, 2014, in Ames, Iowa, at the age of 80. Her funeral was held at the Collegiate United Methodist Church at Iowa State University.

Publications

Schwieder books and papers, much of which focused on the history of

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...

included ''Iowa's Coal Mining Heritage'' (1973), ''A Peculiar People: Iowa's Old Order Amish'' (1975), ''Black Diamonds: Life and Work in Iowa's Coal Mining Community'' (1983), ''Seventy-five Years of Service: Cooperative Extension in Iowa'' (1992), ''Iowa: the Middle Land'' (1996), and ''Growing Up With the Town: Family and Community on the Great Plains'' (2002). She and Gretchen Van Houten co-edited ''Sesquicentennial History of Iowa State University: Tradition and Transformation'', a history of ISU published in 2007.

Awards and honors

In the fall of 2013, Schwieder was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award from the College of Leadership and Public Service by Dakota Wesleyan University.

Biography

Publications

Awards and honors

References

Further reading