Creator: Gwen Norrell, Jeff Charnley

Subjects: Anniversaries, Sesquicentennial

Description:

Gwen Norrell received a B.S. in history from Peabody College for Teachers in Nashville, taught for two years in Arkansas, went to Columbia for her Masters in Counseling and received a Doctor of Education degree from Colorado.

Norrell began working at Michigan State University in 1945 to work on tests and measurements (known today as vocational guidance). She tested veterans on career choices and traveled throughout Michigan recruiting students to attend MSU. Gwen was instrumental in creating the present-day Admissions Office (originally called the Office of High School Cooperation). She was responsible for testing student applicants (through a secure exam) for the Alumni Distinguished Scholarship, a program for very bright young scholars. Gwen began a program for disadvantaged students (the Detroit Project of 1967) who were very poor but had good potential as students; initial group consisted of 11 blacks, 11 whites; outgrowth from this project was the Lansing Project in 1970 which helped older minorities and the Flint Project.

Norrell achieved many firsts in her time at Michigan State University. She was the first woman to chair the University Steering Committee and Academic Senate during the Wharton presidency, the first woman to be a faculty athletic representative to the Big 10, and the first woman president of the NCAA. In this position she was a great advocate for MSU athletics and was responsible for integrating women into athletics which was precursor to Title IX. She also set up the academic portion of the research unit in the NCAA.
In 1973 Gwen received the MSU Alumni Distinguished Faculty Award, was named 1978 honorary alumnus, and in 2000 she was named to the MSU Athletic Hall of Fame. Dr. Norrell retired from MSU in 1988. She died Tuesday, June 15, 2004, at the age of 84.

Date: November 22, 2000

Format: Audio/mp3

Original Format: Audiocassettes

Resource Identifier: Gwen_Norrell_Intv_t2s2.mp3

Collection Number: UA 3

Language: English

Rights Management: Educational use only, no other permissions given. Copyright to this resource is held by Michigan State University and is provided here for educational purposes only. It may not be reproduced or distributed in any format without written permission of the University Archives & Historical Collections, Michigan State University.

Contributing Institution: University Archives & Historical Collections, MATRIX, Office of the Provost

Relation: Sesquicentennial Oral History Project

Contributor: MSU Archives and Historical Collections

Audio File:

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