Herbolsheimer, distinguished alumnus, dies
Dr. Henrietta Herbolsheimer, a distinguished graduate of LaSalle-Peru-Oglesby Junior College, died in her Hyde Park home March 22 at the age of 86.
The Peru native earned an A.A. from L-P-O, the predecessor of IVCC, in 1932, and she entered the University of Chicago.
Officials at the university were skeptical about her L-P-O studies and, at least for a time, did not give her credit for her associate degree courses, according to Dr. C. R. Jasiek, a long-time member of IVCCs Board of Trustees.
She proved herself at the university, however, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. The Chicago Tribune reported that when she entered the University of Chicago medical school, one of only five women in her class, her instructors tried to discourage her from going into medicine.
In 1938 she received her doctorate with Alpha Omega Alpha honors for excellence in medical school. Later in her career, after she earned a Master’s in public health from Johns Hopkins University, she taught in the University of Chicago medical school and was an associate professor emeritus at the time of her death.
In 1945 she was appointed chief of the Illinois Department of Public Health’s Division of Maternal and Child Health, reportedly the youngest person in the U.S. to hold such a post. She went on to serve the State of Illinois in a number of public health posts for more than 40 years.
She received the Benjamin Rush Award from the American Medical Association, the A.M.A.’s highest honor for citizenship and community service, in 1985, and the Chicago Medical Society’s Public Service Award in 1988.
The following year, the Community College Trustees Association named her the Distinguished Community College Alumnus. One of her nominating letters for that award was written by James R. Thompson, governor of Illinois at the time.
Dr. Herbolsheimer was born in 1913 in Peru to George L. and Catherine Herbolsheimer. Her brother George L. Herbolsheimer III, who died in 1992, was the IVCC Board attorney for a number of years. He was also an L-P-O Junior College graduate.
She is survived by a sister, Catherine Hoobler of Cleveland, and nine nieces and nephews.
April 8, 1999 the Apache