Breaking Chicago's Glass Ceilings: Making History Interviews with Deborah L. DeHaas and Adele S. Simmons

• Published in: Chicago history Vol. 42; no. 2; pp. 46 - 64
• Main Author: Gilfoyle, Timothy J
• Format: Magazine Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chicago Chicago History Museum 01.07.2018
• Subjects: Accounting; Chairman of the board; Children & youth; Councils; Families & family life; Museums; Presidents; School boards; Secondary schools; Smith, Thorne (1892-1934); Women; Illinois; Africa; Chicago Illinois; Kenya; Mauritius; Pennsylvania
• ISSN: 0272-8540

Simmons's great-grandmother was Lucy Flower, cofounder of the nation's first juvenile court with Julia Lathrap and a longserving member of the Chicago School Board. At various times, he was president of the Newberry Library, the Chicago Historical Society, the Adler Planetarium, the Welfare Council of Metropolitan Chicago, the Illinois Children's Home & Aid Society, the Community Fund of Chicago, and the Adlai Stevenson Institute of International Affairs at the University of Chicago. The Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography at the Newberry Library is named for him.6 His family avidly supported Adlai Stevenson for many years, with Smith serving in Stevenson's campaign for governor of Illinois in 1947; as chairman of the Board of Public Welfare Commissioners during Stevenson's governorship; and as chairman of Volunteers for Stevenson during his ill-fated 1952 presidential campaign. Mary Lou DeHaas founded the Head Start program in their town, was the first woman to serve on the local city council, and encouraged her children to push themselves, which is something DeHaas said she has tried to do with her three sons.