A Mind of Her Own: Helen Connor Laird and Family, 1888-1982

University of Wisconsin Press, 2009. Hardcover. Like New/Fine . 9x6x1. Merry Christmas" on first blank page. A Mind of Her Own: Helen Connor Laird and Family 1888–1982 captures the public achievement and private pain of a remarkable Wisconsin woman and her family, whose interests and influence extended well beyond the borders of the state. Spanning almost a century, the history speaks to the way we were and are: a stridently materialistic nation with a deep and persistent spiritual component. Laird, born Helen Connor, spent most of her life in central and northern Wisconsin, where her family owned a successful lumber business. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin (UW) in 1912 and married her husband, Melvin, the following year. Their third son, named for his father, would become the U.S. secretary of defense in 1969. Helen, an active clubwoman, helped found the Wood County Republican Woman’s Club in the 1940s. She also supported the Council on Foreign Relations and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. She was the first woman president of the Marshfield Board of Education, and in 1951 she became a member of the University of Wisconsin’s Board of Regents, where she chaired the education committee.