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Bertha Louise Yerex

1892-1984
Born: Newaygo, Newaygo, Michigan, United States
Died: Cass City, Tuscola Co., Michigan USA

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Life Story
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  • Story: Newspaper Article Bertha Yerex Whitman

    <p>Fremont Times-Indicator, Wednesday, March 31, 1982, p7. Hostetler, Margaret. FORMER NEWAYGO SCHOOL TEACHER: NEWAYGO NATIVE IS PIONEER IN ARCHITECTUR E.</p> <p>Every community produces a certain number of pioneers, and one of Newaygo's contributions to that class of forward-looking Americans is Bertha Yerex Whitman. Mrs. Whitman who was born in Newaygo in 1892 is a pioneering woman architect. She was the first woman graduate of the University of Michigan College of Architecture (class of 1920); is the founder of the T-Square Club at the U of M for women students of architecture and engineering; and the founder of the Women's Architecture Club of Chicago. She presently lives in Ann Arbor and during most of her practicing years lived in Chicago and Evanston, Illinois.</p> <p>Her inspiration to look toward the field of architecture, however, came wh ile she was working as a kindergarten teacher at the Newaygo Elementary School from 1911-1913. She lived there with her uncle and aunt, Dr. and Mrs. Charles Whitehead, because her own family had moved out of Newaygo some years previously. They left after the death of her father Charles Yerex who had served as the station master and telegrapher at the Newaygo train depot.</p> <p>Bertha's inspiration came from her Aunt Josephine Whitehead who taught her how to sew and how to design and make quilts. These activities reawakened in Bertha a dormant interest in artistic pursuits. That interest plus Bertha's long-standing skill in the area of math led her to sign up for a correspondence course in mechanical drafting. After completing the course in Newaygo between her duties as teacher, she knew that what she wanted was a career that is considered quite unorthodox for a woman. So she headed for Ann Arbor. At the University of Michigan she talked to the dean of the architecture school who said quite frankly that women were not welcomed. Said Bertha, "I'm a peculiar person. I do everything people said couldn't be done. I immediately walked down and registered."</p> <p>Once in the school Bertha was well-accepted by her fellow students, and when most of them went off to war in 1917 she also quit school so that she could complete her senior year with her classmates. During that two years interlude she worked as the first woman ever hired in the engineering, drafting department at Dodge Corporation.</p> <p>After graduation in 1920, Mrs. Whitman began an architectural career that has spanned five decades. Among her accomplishment are designs for many homes in Evanston, Illinois, and architectural work on numerous state of Illinois government buildings. One of her house designs was awarded a Better Homes Award in 1930 for excellence of design. She also designed the booth at the 1933 World's fair for the Women's Architecture Club of Chicago. In describing her work Mrs. Whitman, who is now retired, say, "I consider architecture to be an art, but I am also strong on engineering. My houses are very sturdy. They don't fall apart." Mrs. Whitman has connections in Newaygo County by marriage also. Her former husband Lloyd Whitman was a native of White Cloud, the son of the form er sheriff Charles Whitman. Mrs. Whitman's outstanding and pioneering career in architecture provid proof that small town roots are no barrier to large scale achievements.</p> <p><br>&nbsp;</p>

  • Death

  • Burial: Southern Cemetery

  • Story: Bertha Yerex Whitman

    <div><p>&nbsp;Biography from pages 226-227 in Sarah Allaback&#39;s book, <br>&quot;The First American Women Architects&quot; (Univ. of Illinois Press, 2008).</p><p>Bertha Louise Yerex Whitman is remembered as the first woman to graduate with a B.S. in architecture from the University of Michigan (1920) but her college education began at Eastern Michigan University, where she received a teaching certificate in 1911.&nbsp; Whitman taught in her native town of Newago, Michigan, for three years before deciding to change careers.&nbsp; She enrolled in a correspondence course in mechanical drafting and in 1914 became a student in the architecture program at the Univsity of Michigan.&nbsp; When many of her classmates left for World War I,&nbsp;Bertha found her own way to participate in the war effort by becoming the first female drafter the the Dodge Company in Detroit.&nbsp; She and her class graduated in 1920.</p><p>After graduation,&nbsp;Bertha moved to Chicago in the hope of finding better opportunities, and she joined the office of Perkins, Fellows, and Hamilton.&nbsp;&nbsp;Bertha married in 1921 but remained at the firm until the birth of her first child 1924. She earned her license to practice architecture in Illinois in the fall of 1926, when pregnant with her second child.&nbsp; The Great Depression altered Bertha&#39;s life permanently when her husband&#39;s business collapsed and he deserted the family sometime after 1929.&nbsp; Left to support her two young children,&nbsp;Bertha went to work as a social worker for the City of Chicago.&nbsp; After about three years, she became a state employee responsible for designing all types of office buildings.&nbsp; Although Bertha&#39;s architectural practice had been compromised, she was able to maintain a limited residential practice, designing more than fifty houses between 1928 and 1967.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p></div>

 
 
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