Patricia Rosalind (Cutler) Fowler Warner was born in New York, New York, on May 21, 1921. On January 17, 1942, she married Robert Ludlow Fowler; he was killed in action while serving on the U.S.S. Duncan in October 1942. Their one child, Robert Ludlow Fowler III, was born in 1943. For two years during World War II, PRW served with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in New York, Washington, D.C., London and Madrid. Awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 1951, PRW turned it down to marry Charles George Kavanaugh Warner, a history professor, on August 4, 1951. They had five children: Charles Christopher Stuyvesant, born in 1952, Nicholas Fish (1954), Cecily Bayard (1957), and twins Rosalind Livingston and Joshua Cutler (1958). PRW earned a B.A. from Barnard College (1949), a certificate in learning disabilities from Tufts University (1975), and an M.A. in independent studies, specializing in eating disorders, from Lesley College (1985).
Because of her daughter's long-time struggle with both anorexia and bulimia nervosa and the fact that there was so little information about these disorders in that period, PRW, along with another parent, co-founded Anorexia Nervosa Aid Society Inc. (ANAS) in 1978. The organization ran workshops for parents and eating disordered individuals, served as a clearing house for gathering and disseminating information, maintained a register of professionals working in the field, published monthly newsletters, and hosted an annual conference. PRW was the unpaid executive director, running the parent workshops, writing the newsletter, and working 60 hours a week, many of them on the HOT-LINE.
In 1987, with 15 other similarly involved national leaders, PRW founded Eating Disorders Awareness and Prevention Inc. and served on the national and international steering committees. Determined to stem the rising incidence of eating disorder cases, she turned to her cousin, Hamilton Fish, Jr., Congressman from New York State, who was instrumental in pushing through Congress a bill proclaiming the first week in February National Eating Disorders Awareness Week (EDAW). In 1986, ANAS legally became known as Anorexia Bulimia Care, Inc. (ABC). PRW remained as executive director until her retirement in 1991. A few years later, after some unsuccessful efforts to find a replacement, ABC officially merged with the Massachusetts Eating Disorder Association (MEDA).
From the guide to the Papers, 1944-1996, (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)
