Hobby, Oveta Culp, 1905-1995

Oveta Culp Hobby (January 19, 1905 – August 16, 1995) was the first secretary of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, first director of the Women's Army Corps, and a chairperson of the board of the Houston Post.

Hobby went to Washington, D.C., in 1941 to head the newly formed women's division of the War Department's Bureau of Public Relations. At the request of Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall she drafted plans for the formation of a women's auxiliary to the male army, which ultimately resulted in the formation of the WAC (Women's Army Corps). While many of the auxiliary positions were in jobs traditionally open to women, such as secretaries and executive assistants, Hobby struggled to get the WACs involved in male-dominated fields such as war planning, cartography, and cryptography. She also initiated a program of recruiting black women for the officer corps, an unusual idea at the time. By 1943 she oversaw the activities of more than one hundred thousand WACs in a variety of noncombat positions. That year she was made a colonel in the army, but male opposition blocked her from the rank of general. She received the Distinguished Service Medal in honor of her work. Following the war she resigned her commission and returned to Houston.

In 1953, Hobby was recalled by Dwight D. Eisenhower to Washington. Now president, Eisenhower appointed her the first secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW), making her the second female cabinet member. She took the appointment at a controversial moment, when many remained convinced that the federal government had no role in the nation's health or education. She nonetheless ably oversaw the administration of the Public Health Service, the Food and Drug Administration, the Office of Education, and the Bureau of Old Age and Survivors Insurance--all departments of HEW. She also supervised the distribution of Jonas Salk's polio vaccine in 1955.