Grace Paul
{{Infobox person
| name = Grace Paul
| image = GraceJecksPaul1924.png
| alt = A young, dark-skinned South Asian woman, wearing a white dress. Her dark hair is parted and dressed back and low at the nape. She is looking directly at the camera and not smiling.
| caption = Grace Paul, from the 1924 Mount Holyoke College yearbook
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 1901
| birth_place = Jaffna
| death_date =
| death_place =
| nationality = Sri Lankan
| other_names =
| occupation = Educator
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
}}
Grace Jecks Paul (born 1901 – died after 1972) was a Tamil Christian educator from Sri Lanka. She was principal at three girls' schools in Sri Lanka, and a founding member of the Ceylon Federation of University Women in 1941.
Early life
Paul was born in Jaffna, to Tamil Christian parents, Rev. Isaac Paul and Elizabeth Holsington Paul.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39872131/grace_j_paul_1922/|title=Foreign Women Welcomed as Students Here|date=October 29, 1922|work=The Baltimore Sun|access-date=November 30, 2019|page=105|via=Newspapers.com}} Her grandfather, father, and uncles were pastors, connected with the American Ceylon Mission.{{Cite journal|date=November 1919|title=Our Own Girls at Madras College|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H_DOAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Grace+Paul%22+Ceylon&pg=PA467|journal=Life and Light for Woman|volume=49|pages=467–468}} She graduated from Uduvil Seminary and Madras Christian College before attending Mount Holyoke College in 1920."To Proclaim Release to the Captives" Life and Light 51(December 1921): 436. via Internet Archive At Mount Holyoke, she was president of the Cosmopolitan Club.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39874007/grace_paul_1923/|title=Cosmopolitan Club Formed by Girls at Mt. Holyoke|date=January 7, 1923|work=The Tampa Tribune|access-date=November 30, 2019|page=10|via=Newspapers.com}} She graduated from Mount Holyoke in 1924,Mount Holyoke College, [https://compass.fivecolleges.edu/object/mtholyoke:47848?search=yearbook The Llamarada] (1924 yearbook): 127. and pursued further studies at Teachers College, Columbia University.{{Cite web|url=https://www.mtholyoke.edu/global/international-students/grace-paul-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150920074018/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/global/international-students/grace-paul-24|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 20, 2015|title=Grace Paul '24|date=2013-06-14|website=Mount Holyoke College|language=en|access-date=2019-11-30}}
While a student in the United States, she attended the 19th Conference of Women's Foreign Missionary Societies in 1922, in Massachusetts.{{Cite journal|last=Butler|first=Clementina|date=October 1922|title=The Nineteenth Conference of Women's Foreign Missionary Societies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FKhVAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Grace+Paul%22+Ceylon&pg=PA673|journal=Record of Christian Work|volume=41|pages=672–673}} In 1924, she spoke at the Fourth Congress of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom in Washington.{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/reportoffourthco24wome|title=Report of the fourth congress of the Women's international league for peace and freedom, Washington, May 1 to 7, 1924|date=1924|publisher=Washington, U.S.A. : Women's international league, U.S. section; [etc., etc.|others=University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign|pages=[https://archive.org/details/reportoffourthco24wome/page/15 15]–16}}
Career
Paul taught science at Uduvil Girls' School, and was eventually principal of the school's bilingual program. From 1947 to 1955, she was principal at Girls' High School, Kandy,{{Cite journal|last=Paul|first=Grace J.|date=June 1958|title=Christian Education in Ceylon|journal=Journal of Christian Education|language=en-US|volume=os-1|issue=1|pages=45–48|doi=10.1177/002196575800100106|s2cid=149126443|issn=0021-9657}} the school's first Sri Lankan head.{{Cite web|url=http://ghskandy.edu.lk/web/content?content=past-principals|title=Past Principals|website=Girls’ High School Kandy|access-date=2019-12-01|archive-date=2021-05-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210517093538/http://ghskandy.edu.lk/web/content?content=past-principals|url-status=dead}} From 1958 to 1964, she was principal of St. Paul's Girls School, Milagiriya. She was known for requiring laboratory work in her classes.
In 1941 she was a founding member of the Ceylon Federation of University Women, along with Doreen Young Wickremasinghe, Hilda Kularatne, Susan George Pulimood, Marjorie Westrop, and Clara Motwani. She was the only native-born founder of the organization, and its first Sri Lankan president, leading the federation from 1944 to 1946 and from 1958 to 1959.{{Cite news|url=http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=151783|title=75 years of Sri Lanka Federation of University Women|date=10 September 2016|work=The Island|access-date=November 30, 2019}}
Personal life
In 1932, she visited one of her brothers, clergyman and educator Charles Blackshear Paul, in Singapore{{Cite news|url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/maltribune19320510-1.2.5?ST=1&AT=search&k=%22Grace%20Paul%22&QT=%22gracepaul%22&oref=article|title=Missionary Teacher in Singapore|date=May 10, 1932|work=Malaya Tribune|access-date=November 30, 2019|page=3|via=Newspapers.com}} and spoke on her experiences in the United States.{{Cite news|url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/maltribune19320512-1.2.94|title=Experiences in America; Miss Paul Addresses Local Audience|date=May 12, 1932|work=Malaya Tribune|access-date=November 30, 2019|page=10|via=NewspaperSG}} She survived her brother Charles when he died in 1973.{{Cite news|url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19730104-1.2.114?ST=1&AT=search&k=%22Grace%20Paul%22&QT=%22gracepaul%22&oref=article|title=Rev. 'Julius Caesar' Dies, aged 77|date=January 4, 1973|work=The Straits Times|access-date=November 30, 2019|page=20|via=NewspaperSG}}
References
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External links
- [https://compass.fivecolleges.edu/object/mtholyoke:33659 A 1923 photograph of Grace Paul] with other international students at Mount Holyoke College.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Paul, Grace}}
Category:Year of death unknown
Category:Sri Lankan Christians