Leopold, Alice Koller, 1906-1982
Name Entries
person
Leopold, Alice Koller, 1906-1982
Name Components
Surname :
Leopold
Forename :
Alice Koller
Date :
1906-1982
eng
Latn
authorizedForm
rda
Koller, Alice, 1906-1982
Name Components
Surname :
Koller
Forename :
Alice
Date :
1906-1982
eng
Latn
alternativeForm
rda
Genders
Female
Exist Dates
Biographical History
Alice Koller was the daughter of E. Leonard Koller (1872-1953) and Leonora Edwards Koller (1881-1942). She graduated from Goucher College in Towson, Maryland in 1927, double-majoring in English and economics. After a training course, she became an assistant buyer for Hutzler's, a major Baltimore department store. She soon advanced to being personnel director, first for the female employees and then for all employees. She was later personnel director for B. Altman and Company, a New York City department store.
In 1931 Koller married New York advertising executive Joseph Leopold and became a homemaker, raising the couple's two children, Robert (1934-2004) and John. While raising her sons she started a successful toy company based on designs she had made herself for places to park toy vehicles.
While her sons were in the Weston, Connecticut public schools, Alice Leopold organized a hot lunch program for the students and became the president of the local Parent Teacher Association. She also worked with the League of Women Voters. In 1949 Leopold was elected as a Republican to the Connecticut House of Representatives from Weston. She introduced a minimum wage law which passed in the next session and an equal pay law which was passed in that session. In 1950 she was elected Secretary of State. In 1953 her office produced a general revision of election laws which successfully passed the legislature.
In November 1953 Leopold resigned to be director of the United States Women's Bureau, first as a recess appointment by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and then confirmed by the Senate in January 1954. Eisenhower probably replaced the previous director, Frieda S. Miller, in an effort to mute Women's Bureau opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment. Leopold focused the Bureau more on the problems of professional women and on women re-entering the workforce after raising children, as she had herself. In 1954 she was given the additional title of Assistant to the Secretary of Labor for Women's Affairs. In 1956 she persuaded Eisenhower to add a call for equal pay to his State of the Union address, and the call was repeated for the remainder of Eisenhower's administration.
In 1958 Leopold was given an honorary Doctor of Laws by Rutgers University. She received Rockford College's Jane Addams Medal in 1960, an award given to women who, like Addams, "are pioneers in their professions, outstanding in character, and recognized for their contributions to the arts, sciences, and society".
During the Nixon administration Leopold served on a Health Services Industry Committee which was intended to develop measures to reduce inflation in the health care industry. She is listed as living in San Francisco, California at the time.
Leopold is buried in the Chestnut Hill Cemetery in Glen Rock, Pennsylvania with her parents. Some of her papers are in the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University.
eng
Latn
External Related CPF
https://viaf.org/viaf/305367905
https://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-no2013107524
https://id.loc.gov/authorities/no2013107524
https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q104172783
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Languages Used
eng
Latn
Subjects
Women
Women engineers
Women in politics
Women teachers
Nationalities
Americans
Activities
Occupations
Government officials
Politician
Social Activist
Legal Statuses
Places
Weston
AssociatedPlace
Residence
Baltimore
AssociatedPlace
Work
New York City
AssociatedPlace
Work
Scranton
AssociatedPlace
Birth
Washington, D. C.
AssociatedPlace
Work
San Francisco
AssociatedPlace
Residence
Convention Declarations
<conventionDeclaration><citation>VIAF</citation></conventionDeclaration>