Horton, Mildred McAfee (1900–1994)

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Horton, Mildred McAfee (1900–1994)

Seventh president of Wellesley College who was also director of the U.S. Navy's WAVES during World War II. Name variations: Mildred McAfee; (nickname) Miss Mac. Born Mildred Helen McAfee in Parkville, Missouri, on May 12, 1900; died in Randolph, New Hampshire, on September 2, 1994; daughter of Dr. Cleland Boyd (a minister) and Harriet (Brown) McAfee; graduate of the Francis W. Parker School, Chicago, Illinois; Vassar College, B.A., 1920; attended Columbia University; University of Chicago, M.A., 1928; married Douglas Horton (a minister and the first world leader of the Congregational Christian Churches), in 1945.

Served as dean of women and professor of sociology at Centre College, Kentucky (1927–32); served as dean of the college of women at Oberlin (1934–36); chosen president of Wellesley College (1936); appointed director of the women's reserve of the U.S. Naval Reserve (1942), with the rank of lieutenant commander; held the rank of captain (1943–46); resigned as president of Wellesley College (1949) to join husband in church and educational work in New York City; became first female president of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions of the Congregational Christian Churches (1959).

The daughter of a minister, and descended from a long line of church people and educators, Mildred McAfee was born in Parkville, Missouri, in 1900. She was a graduate of Vassar College and received her master's degree from the University of Chicago in 1928. Horton taught at various schools in the Chicago area and at Tusculum College in Tennessee before her appointment as professor of sociology and dean of women at Centre College in Kentucky, a position she held from 1927 to 1932. For two years beginning in 1932, she served as secretary of the Associate Alumnae of Vassar College, then became dean of women at Oberlin College. In 1936, at age 36, Horton was appointed president of Wellesley, the second youngest president in the history of the college. Horton was selected after an exhaustive 18-month search, during which trustees interviewed some 100 candidates and 1,000 alumnae, looking for a combination of "intellectual honesty, leadership, tolerance, savoir faire, sympathetic understanding of youth, vision, and a sense of humor." Upon her appointment, Horton declared herself a staunch conservative. "I haven't attempted any innovations at Oberlin College," she said, "and I don't contemplate any at Wellesley."

In 1942, when President Franklin Roosevelt signed the bill creating the Women's Reserve in the navy, Horton, who had served on the Educational Advisory Committee for the Navy Training Program, was appointed to direct the Women Appointed for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES). Given a leave from Wellesley, she became the first female officer in the Naval Reserve and, as such, directed the 82,000 navy women who served as decoders, radio operators, and air-traffic controllers during World War II.

Horton returned to Wellesley in 1946, where she was affectionately known as "Miss Mac," even after her 1945 marriage to Reverend Douglas Horton, a widower of 54 who had served as dean of Harvard Divinity School and was the first world leader of the Congregational Christian Churches. Horton, who left Wellesley in 1949, later became the first female president of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions of the Congregational Christian Churches (1959).

Mildred McAfee Horton received numerous award and honors during her lifetime, including the Distinguished Service Medal, the American Campaign Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal. In 1969, she was given the University of New Hampshire's Charles Holmes Pettee Medal for her "outstanding service to the state, the nation and the world." Earlier, in 1960, Wellesley College had named a new $1 million dormitory "McAfee Hall." Mildred McAfee Horton died in a New Hampshire nursing home at the age of 94.