Mary (Shotwell) Ingraham

Mary (Shotwell) Ingraham, educator and civic leader, was born in Brooklyn, New York, on January 5, 1887, the daughter of Henry Titus and Alice Wyman (Gardner) Shotwell. In 1908 she received her A.B. from Vassar and married Henry Andrews Ingraham; they had four children: Mary Alice, Henry Gardner, Winifred Andrews, and David.

MSI was active with the Young Women's Christian Association of Brooklyn, New York, from 1908 on, and was its chair, 1915-1922. She became vice-president of the National Board of the YWCA in 1922 and was president, 1940-1946. MSI was vice-president and director of the New York Council on Adult Education, 1933-1937, vice-chairman of the Brooklyn Council for Social Planning, 1933-1938, and vice-president and director of the Central Volunteer Bureau, 1938-1943. During World War II, she was vice-president of the United Service Organization, and advisor to Oveta Culp Hobby, Director of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, on the recruitment of women officers to the WAAC. After the war she continued her work for the YWCA in fundraising and projects for interracial harmony. She served on the National Social Welfare Assembly,which coordinated the programs of various charitable youth organizations. In 1938 she had begun service on the Board of Higher Education of New York City and in 1959 became chairman of its Committee to Look to the Future, which recommended the re-organization of the city colleges (CCNY, Hunter, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx and Queensborough community colleges) into the City University of New York. This plan was adopted by the state legislature in 1961.

Born a Quaker, MSI attended meeting throughout her life and was active in the establishment of Powell House, a Friends' meeting center in Old Chatham, New York. She was awarded the President's Medal for Merit in 1946, and honorary degrees from Wesleyan (1952) and Columbia (1961). MSI was a member of the Civitas and Twentieth Century clubs.