Ethel Percy Andrus (September 21, 1884 San Francisco, California – July 13, 1967) was a long-time educator and the first woman high school principal in California. She was also the founder of AARP in 1958. In 1995 she was designated a Women's History Month Honoree by the National Women's History Project.
She earned a bachelor of philosophy (S.B. or Scientiæ Baccalaureus) degree from the University of Chicago in 1903 and a bachelor of science degr...
More
Ethel Percy Andrus (September 21, 1884 San Francisco, California – July 13, 1967) was a long-time educator and the first woman high school principal in California. She was also the founder of AARP in 1958. In 1995 she was designated a Women's History Month Honoree by the National Women's History Project.
She earned a bachelor of philosophy (S.B. or Scientiæ Baccalaureus) degree from the University of Chicago in 1903 and a bachelor of science degree from Lewis Institute (now Illinois Institute of Technology) in 1918. She then went on to receive her master's (1928) and doctoral (1930) degrees from the University of Southern California. While teaching at the Lewis Institute, she volunteered at Jane Addam's Hull House.
Andrus founded a separate organization, the National Retired Teachers Association (NRTA) in 1947. She realized that retired teachers were living on incredibly small pensions, often without any health insurance. She approached more than 30 companies to offer health...
Less
