Reynolds, Bertha Capen, 1885-

Betsy Estey Talbot Capen was a resident of Stoughton, Mass. Reynolds was her great-granddaughter.

Social worker; Professor, social work; Author.

by Rachel A. Levine Literary Executor

Bertha Capen Reynolds, n.d.

It is thanks to the Centennial Committee of a small core of professional colleagues convened by Jack Kamaiko; to Vida S. Grayson, oral historian, Smith College School for Social Work; and to Dorothy Green, research associate, and Susan Grigg, director, Sophia Smith Collection, that Bertha Capen Reynolds and her writings are being resurrected from virtual oblivion. The centennial programs are to commemorate her birth and her achievements as scholar, teacher, and writer like no other; and to introduce recent generations of students and practitioners, and those to follow, to her rich, thought-provoking, trail? blazing contributions to the social work literature and to the teaching and practice of social work. It would be logical for these people to ask, as some have, why they had not known about so eminent a person during the course of their education and training.

In historical perspective, reasons tend to become obscured or rationalized; but stripped to raw essence, it is for the reason that for the later period of her productive years a conspiracy of silent ostracism, not unlike a gentlemen's agreement, prevailed among the established leadership in the profession and among the prestigious schools of social work and social agencies; and her writings were omitted from the reading lists of schools of social work. The consequences were two-fold: the loss to students of original and stimulating learning materials; and the loss to Bertha C. Reynolds of her lifeline to all levels of contacts that she characterized as "nourishing," as well as the loss of the means of earning a livelihood.

Because such a phenomenon had not occurred in the profession before Bertha C. Reynolds's time and has not occurred since, as far as I know, an explanation is in order. Her writings trace the historical events and the process which brought her to self-liberation from the constraints of time-honored doctrine.

She believed that catastrophes like war, cyclic economic depression, chronic poverty, hunger, and a host of others, and their effects upon the human condition, and on a global scale, are but the symptoms of underlying causes which are rooted in societal values and systems; therefore, the searchlight should be beamed on, and work directed to, the elimination of the causes. Moreover, social work, the profession most intimately knowledgeable about the tolls of such disasters in human misery, and deeply involved in its alleviation, has a role in helping to change value systems in a society which tolerates the degradation of body and spirit of masses of humanity. These principles were (and still are) in sharp contrast to those held acceptable by individuals and groups in power. But what "cooked her goose," to quote a phrase, was that she used Marxist ideology as a frame of reference for her beliefs and its science of society as the key to the solution of such widespread socio-economic-political disasters. And, she dared to present her views in public! Yet paradoxical as it may seem, her abiding faith in her beloved America, and in its people, and in the profession, to show the way to the changes needed for a better world for all peoples, never wavered. "This book is dedicated to an unbreakable tie with the interests of humanity" is the dedication in her book, Social Work and Social Living .

The legacy of the writings of Bertha C. Reynolds to her profession contains searching questions and insightful, incisive answers which are as relevant, if not more so, to today's world as when they were written. Is this legacy worth her sacrifices of creature comforts and of the acclaim which undoubtedly would have been hers had she made compromises to conformity; will it enlighten and inspire others to creative thinking, and to the courage to speak out for infusion of new ideas, without which a profession remains static? I asked her several months before her death, what message would she send to young people entering the profession today? Her response was, "Do not get locked into traditional molds."

Bertha C. Reynolds's writings attest to the wisdom in the Confucian saying, in paraphrase: to understand the present and the future, one must study and know the past. The inference is that the past is a harbinger of the present and the future, the three being linked in a continuum. Judgments as to the veracity of this linkage and its manifestations (as her writings indicate) will no doubt vary when examined in the light of the contemporary American and world scene. But beyond doubt is the rare treat which is in store for those who study her writings for the first time.

February 1985

Bertha C. Reynolds was a pioneer educator and practitioner in the field of social work and an innovative writer on broader social subjects. These are some principal events in her personal and professional life:

Bertha C. Reynolds died at home in Stoughton on October 29, 1978.

Social worker, social work educator, writer.

Born in Brockton, MA, Dec. 11, 1885. Graduated from Smith College, 1908. Graduated Boston School for Social Workers (later the Simmons College School of Social Work), 1914. Participated in the first course in psychiatric social work at Boston Psychopathic Hospital under Elmer Southard and Mary C. Jarrett, 1918. Published The Selection of Foster Homes For Children with Mary S. Doran, 1919. Director of social services, Danvers State Hospital, Danvers, MA, 1919-23. Worked for Division of Mental Hygiene, Boston, 1923-25. Associate director, Smith College School for Social Work where she did supervision, taught, and conducted research, 1925-35. Published Between Client and Community: A Study in Responsibility in Social Case Work, 1934. Associate director, Smith College School for Social Work, 1942. Case supervisor for the Personal Service Department of the National Maritime Union, 1943-47. Taught social work and psychiatry at William Alanson White Institute in New York, 1948-54. Retired to Stoughton, 1948, and published Social Work and Social Living, 1951. Died, October 29, 1978.