# Bessie Leach Priddy

Elizabeth "Bessie" Leach Priddy (January 18, 1871 – May 27, 1935) was an American educator, social reformer, clubwoman and leader of the Delta Delta Delta women's fraternity.

## Family and education

Priddy was born in 1871 in Belvidere, Illinois. She attended the Belvidere High School and won a scholarship to Adrian College. She was initiated as a member of the Gamma chapter of Delta, Delta, Delta when it was first installed at the Women’s Christian Temperance Union parlors in 1890 by charter member Lotta A.W. Stevens.
After she graduated from Adrian College in 1891, Priddy was employed as a school principal in Capron, Illinois, for two years.
She married attorney Frank E. Priddy in 1893 and they had 3 children. He died in 1909. To support her family following her husbands death, she taught German at Adrian College alongside studying towards her State Teachers Certificate.

## Career

Priddy taught history at the Michigan State Normal College (now Eastern Michigan University), Ypsilanti, Michigan, from 1915 to 1918. Alongside teaching she contributed articles to teaching publications, such as writing recommendations on how to teach about World War I for the History Teacher's Magazine. The article was highly praised by G. Stanley Hall, president of Clark University, who called it "the best article he had seen on the subject in English."
She was promoted to Dean of Women at Michigan State Normal College in 1918. Whilst in post, Priddy and the University president Charles McKenney took disciplinary action against female students found smoking, with 17 expelled. When one of the expelled students, Alice Tanton, sued the college, Priddy claimed that she had "no choice but to send Miss Tanton home" and that "she had repeated warnings." The expulsion was upheld by the Michigan State Supreme Court and Priddy was praised for "maintaining certain ideals" and "upholding some of the old-fashioned ideals of young womanhood."
Priddy became Chairwoman of the Civics Department of the General Federation of Women's Clubs and in 1918 presented the biannual meeting with a "resolution in favour of state censorship of motion pictures," which passed. In 1919, she was amongst the compilers of the Handbook for Women Voters of Michigan, described as "a practical guide in citizenship."
In 1921, the Michigan State Normal College senior class dedicated its yearbook to Priddy, with the inscription: "To Bessie Leach Priddy, Dean of Women and Mother to us all, this volume is lovingly dedicated." The Normal College News reported that "she has endeared herself to the girls of the college and has proved an efficient and wise administrator." In 1922, she gave a talk at the local YMCA on "What a College Man Can Do."
The Bessie Leach Priddy Scholarship Fund was launched in her honour in 1923, when she moved on to her next employer. Priddy was next was appointed the Dean of Women at the University of Missouri, from 1923. Whilst in post, she "stood squarely with the Victorians" and expelled 11 students, including four female students, for drinking liquor.
Throughout her academic career, Priddy remained active in Delta Delta Delta. During her tenure as their National Historian, she wrote A Detailed Record of Delta Delta Delta, 1888–1907, which was the first such publication by any women's organization. In 1931, she was elected National President.
Priddy retired in 1934, and died of heart disease in 1935 in St. Louis, Missouri. She was awarded an honorary masters degree in education from Michigan State Normal College in 1935, which was granted posthumously.