Mary Howell

Mary Catherine Raugust Howell (September 2 1932 – February 5 1998), was a physician, psychologist, lawyer, mentor, musician and mother. She was the first woman dean at Harvard Medical School (1972-1975) and led the fight to end quotas and open medical schools to women.

Dr. Howell was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota. attended Radcliffe College, and received her M.D. and PhD. in Psychology in 1962 from the University of Minnesota, her J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1991.

She was one of five co-founders in 1975 of the National Women's Health Network, along with Barbara Seaman, Alice Wolfson, Belita Cowan, and Phyllis Chesler, Ph.D., and a contributor to Our Bodies, Ourselves. Her book, "Why Would a Girl Go Into Medicine?" started as a collection of the experience of women medical students - documenting the flagrant discrimination against women - and became instrumental (in synch with the feminist movement and helping to fuel title IX legislation) in increasing the percentage of women medical students from 9% in 1969 to 25% in 1979, to almost 50% at present.

Aside from raising 7 children, she opened her home to many students, and to women during transitions in life, sharing her untiring search for knowledge, her humor, her music and her bread-baking. She encouraged students to examine the political aspects of health care, ranging from nutrition in schoolchildren to the power of special interest groups through legislation affecting health care. She empowered parents to take charge of their children's health and practised Pediatrics in Boston and in Maine; worked with people with disabilities and mental illness through the Shriver Center and the Walter E. Fernald State School in Waltham, MA; children with drug addiction, homelessness, HIV through the Medical Van, a program at the Massachusetts General Hospital for street youth; and most recently as the Director of Adoption Resources. She was a member of the Division of Medical Ethics at Harvard Medical School from 1992 to 1994. She strongly advocated for mothers to empower themselves in nurturing their children's health, and through her understanding of medicine in political terms, offered people strategies to take back control of their bodies and their care, and communicate effectively to caretakers about their needs. She was the author of numerous articles and 7 books, including Helping Ourselves, Healing at Home, Death and Dying and Ethical dilemmas: A guide for staff serving developmentally disabled adults and Serving the Underserved: Caring for people who are both old and mentally retarded. She also wrote a monthly column in McCall's Working Mother magazine from 1977-1987.

Aside from being a physician and a lawyer, Mary loved to play violin and viola as a chamber musician. She participated in the Apgar Quartet (instruments made by Virginia Apgar (under the guidance of Carleen Hutchins) the anesthesiologist who developed the Apgar Score) performance in Dallas, at the American Academy of Pediatrics Convention, in honor a the commemorative stamp of Virginia Apgar.[1],, [2], [3], [4], [5], [6]

She died in Watertown, MA. To honor her love of music and children, the Mary Howell memorial scholarship was established at the "Children's Orchestra Society".

[1] New York Times, February 6th, 1998 Mary Howell, a Leader in Medicine, Dies at 65, by Wolfgang Saxon

[2], Journal of American Medical Association Vol 279, #19, May 20, 1998, page 1586, Obituary, by Dr. Yeou-Cheng Ma

[3] Harvard University Gazette, February 12, 1998, Mary Howell, Champion for Women in Medicine, Dies at 65

[4] Harvard Crimson, 2/19/1998, Harvard Alumnae Fought for Women in Medicine

[5] Boston Globe, February 2nd, 1998 Sometimes a patient just says no, by Judy Foreman

[6] Changing the Face of Medicine: Dr. Mary Catherine Raugust Howell, www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/physicians/biography_155.html