Pearl (Katz) Wise, 1901? -

Pearl Katz Wise, a Cambridge, Mass., public official, had a long political career in local government. The eldest child of Julius Katz, she was born in Kovno, Russia, in 1900 or 1901. She emigrated with her mother and two older siblings, Benjamin and Abraham, to Boston, Mass., in 1905. Two other sisters, Ruth and Anna, were born in the United States. The family settled in Colchester, Conn., where her father and uncle were the village blacksmiths. PKW graduated from Bacon Academy in Colchester in 1917; her teacher advised her father to send her to Smith College because she was such a talented student, but her father said that "only boys go to college; girls get married." While her formal education thus ended after high school, PKW was an avid reader who believed strongly in the importance of public libraries, and later worked diligently to establish libraries during her terms on the school committee and city council.

The family moved to Cambridge, Mass., in 1921. PKW's first job was as secretary to the chairman of the Democratic State Committee, a position that introduced her to local politics and civic activism. In 1927 she married Henry Wise, a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School. HW had a long career in labor law, continuing to practice well into his eighties. Active in both the private and public sector, he also served on the Cambridge Housing Authority and was a major proponent of public housing and urban renewal legislation in Massachusetts.

Following her marriage, PKW began her civic career, first with the Cambridge League of Women Voters, serving as chair of the Committee on Women in Industry (1928-1941) and as president (1942-1945). During World War II she chaired the Consumers' Information Division of the Cambridge Public Safety Committee. After the war she worked to establish a strong coalition of Parent-Teacher Associations (PTA) in Cambridge, and became the first president of the Cambridge High and Latin School PTA.

PKW's first foray into politics was to run for a seat on the Cambridge School Committee in 1941. While she lost that election by 210 votes, she later served three consecutive terms (1949-1955). She campaigned for the School Committee as the mother of four children (Robert, Abigail, David, and Rebekah) who had gone through the Cambridge school system. Successful resolutions she introduced included establishing a Citizens' Advisory Committee to help plan new schools, hot lunch programs, school libraries, and the observance of Negro History Week.

In 1955 she was the first woman to be elected to the City Council under Cambridge's Plan E charter form of government. She served four terms, consistently championing citizen involvement in local policy making. As a City Council member, she called for equal representation of women on all city boards and commissions, and introduced orders establishing a Citizens' Advisory Committee on urban renewal. In 1956, she arranged for an exhibition of two African-American artists' paintings at Cambridge City Hall in observance of Negro History Week. During her last term, PKW cast the deciding vote against a controversial East Cambridge renewal project. Her vote saved 115 houses in the Wellington-Harrington area from demolition. Her actions also initiated neighborhood participation in urban planning.

After retiring from the City Council, PKW served on the Citizens' Advisory Committee of the Massachusetts Department of Elder Affairs, and was the first woman appointed to the Cambridge Housing Authority, where she supported tenant associations and the Model Cities Program. HW died in 1989 and in 1996 PKW moved to a retirement home in Manchester, Mass.

From the guide to the Papers, 1895-1990, (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)