Rua Van Horn
{{short description|American educator}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Rua Van Horn
| image = RuaVanHorn1935.png
| alt = A white woman with dark wavy hair parted and dressed to the nape, wearing dark beads and a dark top with a scooped neckline
| caption = Rua Van Horn, from a 1935 publication of the US Department of the Interior
| other_names =
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| birth_date = July 17, 1892
| birth_place = North Loup, Nebraska
| death_date = March 8, 1978
| death_place = Alexandria, Virginia
| occupation = Educator, home economist, federal official
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
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}}
Rua Van Horn (July 17, 1892 – March 8, 1978) was an American educator and home economist with the United States Office of Education from 1934 to 1963.
Early life and education
Rua Rae Van Horn was born on her family's ranch in North Loup, Nebraska, the daughter of Orel Van Horn and Carrie Elnora Babcock Van Horn.{{Cite news |date=1958-06-19 |title=Rua Van Horn Gets Pakistan Position |pages=15 |work=The Ord Quiz |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97581522/rua-van-horn-gets-pakistan-position/ |access-date=2022-03-14 |via=Newspapers.com}} She graduated from high school in 1911,{{Cite news |last=Leonard |first=Betty |date=1962-08-02 |title=Rua Van Horn's Successes Featured by JFK's Paper |pages=2 |work=The Ord Quiz |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97577771/rua-van-horns-successes-featured-by/ |access-date=2022-03-14 |via=Newspapers.com}} then from the Lewis Institute in Chicago, and earned a master's degree from Teachers College, Columbia University.{{Cite news |date=March 19, 1978 |title=Rua Van Horn, Was Home Economist For Federal Office of Education |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1978/03/19/rua-van-horn-was-home-economist-for-federal-office-of-education/9e9b2b31-0eaa-4f4e-afa1-bc0f39a6e18c/ |access-date=2022-03-13 |issn=0190-8286}}
Career
Van Horn taught school for ten years as a young woman, and was Montana state supervisor of home economics while she was teaching at Montana State University. She also taught in Oakland, California, and in a summer program at Colorado State College.{{Cite journal |date=January 1931 |title=News Notes: Montana |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_journal-of-family-and-consumer-sciences_1931-01_23_1/page/112/mode/2up?q=Rua+Van+Horn |journal=The Journal of Home Economics |volume=23 |pages=113 |via=Internet Archive}} She joined the United States Office of Education as a program specialist in home economics education in 1934.{{Cite journal |date=April 1935 |title=Vocational Summary: Personnel Changes |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nzUnAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22Rua+Van+Horn%22&pg=RA1-PA186 |journal=School Life |volume=20 |pages=186}}
In 1938, Van Horn testified before a House hearing on funding for federal funding for home economics programs.{{Cite book |last=United States Congress House Committee on Appropriations |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oaYtAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22Miss+Van+Horn%22+Home+Economics&pg=PA712 |title=Interior Department Appropriation Bill for 1939: Hearings Before the Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, Seventy-fifth Congress, Third Session |date=1938 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |pages=712–713 |language=en}} She served on the Future Homemakers of America advisory board for its first seven years.{{Cite news |date=1946-01-17 |title=Homemakers to Convene |pages=15 |work=Argus-Leader |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97580679/homemakers-to-convene/ |access-date=2022-03-14 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |last=Powers |first=Dorothy Rochon |date=1950-11-12 |title=Teen-Agers Learn Homemaking at School |pages=134 |work=The Spokesman-Review |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97580474/teen-agers-learn-homemaking-at/ |access-date=2022-03-14 |via=Newspapers.com}} From 1948 to 1949, she was president of the D.C. Home Economics Association. In 1951, she was honored by the Nevada Home Economics Association.{{Cite news |date=1951-05-17 |title=Miss Rua Van Horn Honored at Recent Dinner Party |pages=5 |work=Nevada State Journal |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97577291/miss-rua-van-horn-honored-at-recent/ |access-date=2022-03-14 |via=Newspapers.com}} In 1949, she attended the Seventh International Congress on Home Economics, held in Stockholm.{{Cite news |date=1949-06-02 |title=Going to Stockholm |pages=10 |work=The Ord Quiz |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97581190/going-to-stockholm/ |access-date=2022-03-14 |via=Newspapers.com}} In 1953, she attended the Eighth International Congress on Home Economics, held in Edinburgh. In 1958, she resigned from the Office of Education to serve as chief advisor on a Ford Foundation and Oklahoma State University project to develop college curricula for home economics for schools and universities in Pakistan.{{Cite journal |date=November 1958 |title=From the U.S. Office |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_techniques_1958-11_33_8_0/page/26/mode/2up?q=Rua+Van+Horn |journal=American Vocational Journal |volume=33 |pages=26 |via=Internet Archive}}{{Cite news |date=1961-12-03 |title=Retiring Chief of OSU's Pakistan Program Honored |pages=10 |work=Stillwater News-Press |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97577456/retiring-chief-of-osus-pakistan/ |access-date=2022-03-14 |via=Newspapers.com}} She returned to the Office of Education from 1961 to 1963, as a specialist in women's employment and vocational training.{{Cite news |last=Nordahl |first=June |date=1962-07-08 |title=Her job: get women back to work by retraining in needed skills |pages=12 |work=Johnson City Press |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97578065/her-job-get-women-back-to-work-by/ |access-date=2022-03-14 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |last=Horan |first=Nelle |date=1963-08-08 |title=High School Students Face Changes in Jobs |pages=12 |work=The Daily Oklahoman |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97578566/high-school-students-face-changes-in/ |access-date=2022-03-14 |via=Newspapers.com}} In 1965, she consulted with the University of Nebraska's school of home economics.{{Cite news |date=1965-03-23 |title=Consultant Aids Home Economists |pages=6 |work=Fremont Tribune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97581394/consultant-aids-home-economists/ |access-date=2022-03-14 |via=Newspapers.com}}
Publications
- Homemaking Education Program for Adults (1938, with Mary Stuart Lyle){{Cite book |last1=Lyle |first1=Mary Stewart |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xHE8wQEACAAJ |title=Homemaking Education Program for Adults |last2=Horn |first2=Rua Van |date=1938 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |language=en}}
- The teaching of certain aspects of child development in the homemaking program in the secondary school: a compilation of materials from states (1938, compiler){{Cite book |last1=Van Horn |first1=Rua |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102314744 |title=The teaching of certain aspects of child development in the homemaking program in the secondary school: a compilation of materials from states. Home economics education. September, 1938. |last2=United States |date=1938 |publisher=United States Dept. of the Interior, Office of Education, Vocational Division |series=Child development in the homemaking program. |location=Washington}}
- The teaching of certain aspects of child development in the homemaking program in the secondary school: a complilation of materials from states (1939, compiler){{Cite book |last=Van Horn |first=Rua |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009126880 |title=The teaching of certain aspects of child development in the homemaking program in the secondary school: a complilation of materials from states. Home economics education. |date=1939 |publisher=U. S. Office of education, Vocational division |series=United States. Office of education. Misc.2126 |location=Washington}}
- Household Employment Problems: A Handbook for Round-table Discussions Among Household Employers (1939){{Cite book |last=Horn |first=Rua Van |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2CgZr0tKT38C |title=Household Employment Problems: A Handbook for Round-table Discussions Among Household Employers |date=1939 |publisher=U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of Education, Vocational Division |language=en}}
Personal life
Van Horn was active in Seventh Day Baptist activities in Chicago. In 1920, she was president of the Christian Endeavor class at the Chicago Seventh Day Baptist Sabbath School.{{Cite journal |date=May 10, 1920 |title=Report of the Christian Endeavor Class of the Chicago Seventh Day Baptist Sabbath School |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KR9EAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22Rua+Van+Horn%22&pg=PA597 |journal=The Sabbath Recorder |volume=88 |pages=597}} In 1922, Van Horn was a delegate to the Seventh Day Baptist General Conference.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eo0wAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22Rua+Van+Horn%22&pg=PA85 |title=Seventh Day Baptist Yearbook |date=1922 |publisher=Seventh Day Baptist Publishing House |pages=85 |language=en}} Rua Van Horn was listed as "partner" of her colleague Lucille Reynolds{{Cite journal |date=March 1936 |title=Home Economics in Montana |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_journal-of-family-and-consumer-sciences_1936-03_28_3/page/166/mode/2up?q=Rua+Van+Horn |journal=The Journal of Home Economics |volume=28 |pages=166 |via=Internet Archive}} in the 1940 United States Census; they lived together in Washington, D.C.{{Cite web |title=Rua Van Horn in the 1940 Census |url=https://www.ancestry.com/1940-census/usa/District-Of-Columbia/Rua-Van-Horn_wbjl |access-date=2022-03-13 |website=Ancestry |language=en}} She died in 1978, aged 85 years, at her home in Alexandria, Virginia.
References
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Category:People from Valley County, Nebraska
Category:Teachers College, Columbia University alumni