Ruth Winifred Howard
Ruth Howard (Beckham)
(1900-1997)
Ruth Winifred Howard was born in Washington D.C. on March 25, 1900. She was the daughter of Reverend William J. Howard and his wife Alverda Brown Howard, and she had 7 siblings. As a child, she enjoyed reading and aspired to be a librarian. In 1916, she graduated from the old M Street High school, now known as Dunbar High School.
After graduating from high school, Howard attended Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts where she majored in social work. In 1921, she received her bachelor's degree and moved to Cleveland, Ohio where she began her work as a social worker.
Her dedication to helping families and children within her community was evident early on in her career. She started work as a social worker through the Cleveland Urban league and then worked with the Cleveland Child Welfare Agency. She recognized the importance of participating in community planning, often meeting with families, representatives from schools and clinics, to help children in foster care and to support women who were unemployed and undereducated.
While she worked in the area of social services, Howard believed her compassion and understanding for cultural diversity was not shared by her colleagues, rather there egocentric views created a barrier between them understanding and having empathy for the communities which they served as social workers. Spurred on by the importance of being culturally competent, Howard would go back to school and earn a doctorate degree from the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Child Development. Her dissertation was the first of its kind, which studied the developmental history of 229 sets of triplets.
After graduating and marrying fellow psychologist Albert Beckham, Howard moved to Chicago and continued to work in the community sector. She completed an internship at the Illinois Institute of Juvenile Research before working at a community hospital and state school for troubled girls. Eventually the Howards started a private practice. Although Howard had her plate full at times, her commitment did not waver as she served in numerous community and professional organizations. She was a volunteer for the Young Women’s Christian Association and helped organize the National Association of College Women. Some of Ruth Howard’s professional memberships included the American Psychological Association, the International Psychological Association, and the International Council of Women Psychologist.
Tirelessly, Howard dedicated her career for the advancement of women and children. In the latter years of her career she consulted for children’s programs at the Abraham Lincoln Center; served as psychologist for the McKinley Center for Retarded Children and the Chicago Board of Health, Mental Health Division; and worked with Worthington and Hurst Psychological Consultants. Howard paved the way for women in psychology, which deserves to be recognized and honored by all psychologists.
Source: http://www.apa.org/pi/oema/resources/ethnicity-health/psychologists/ruth-howard.aspx