Brill, Julia Gregg, 1891-1985

Julia Gregg Brill was born on September 15, 1891 in Tyrone, Pennsylvania. She was a 1908 graduate of Sunbury High School and a 1910 graduate of Bloomsburg State Normal School. She began her teaching career in a one room school in Town Hill in 1910. She later taught high school at Huntington Mills and then enrolled at the Pennsylvania State College. In 1921, Brill graduated with a bachelor's degree in classical languages and six years later received her master's degree in English. She taught English composition at the College from 1924-1954. For nearly 20 years, she was the only woman faculty member in the Department of English and was the first woman named professor of English. She is noted as being the first woman to receive the Lion's Paw Medal Award (1977); the first woman to serve on the board of directors of the Penn State foundation, and in 1958, the first Woman of the Year chosen by the university board of trustees. Brill was the founder of the Purple Quill, student/faculty literary society. She was also a charter and life-long participant of Beta Mu chapter, Alpha Chi Omega sorority. Following her retirement on June 30, 1954 as professor emeritus, Brill served for 20 years as a volunteer in Schlow Memorial Library of State College. Julia Brill died at the age of 93 in Mechanicsburg on March 1, 1985.