Sorrentino, Rosemary Pierrel

After earning her Ph.D. in psychology, Rosemary "Posi" Pierrel Sorrentino taught at Brown for two years as an instructor, but left for Columbia and Barnard when President Henry Wriston refused to make her an assistant professor. "The way he saw it," she once recalled, "there was no future for women on this faculty." Despite Wriston's sentiment, Sorrentino went on to become the last dean of Pembroke College and one of the first female professors at Brown. She died on November 11, 2004, in Providence. She was eighty-one.

Fortunately for Sorrentino, President Barnaby Keeney differed from Wriston on the role of women at Brown. Keeney lured her back to College Hill as Pembroke dean in 1961 with the promise that she could influence curriculum and academic life while continuing her research. During her decade as dean, Sorrentino emphasized academics and encouraged women to pursue careers as scholars. Under her tenure the number of women concentrating in the sciences increased. As an associate professor, she taught a senior seminar in psychology.

...