Draft:Edith Irene Atkin

• Comment: A multitude of primary sources and nothing thaty persuades me that Atkin leaps the high bar for notability. More research is necessary, please. 🇵🇸‍🇺🇦 Fiddle^Timtrent Faddle^Talk to me 🇺🇦‍🇵🇸 16:31, 2 May 2025 (UTC)

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Edith Irene Atkin
Born	August 26th, 1874 Lyndonville, New York
Died	August 27th, 1955 (aged 81) Normal, Illinois
Occupation	Mathematics Professor
Years active	1909-1944

Edith Irene Atkin was an American educator at Illinois State University and former president of the Illinois Education Association. Following her 35 years at the University, ISNU's Atkin-Colby residence hall was, in part, named after Atkin.

Early life

Edith Irene Atkin was born on August 26th, 1874, in Lyndonville, New York to William and Delia Atkin. After graduating from Michigan State Normal College in 1896, she attended the University of Michigan, where she obtained her master’s degree in the arts. Before her time as a professor at Illinois State Normal University, Atkin taught at Petoskey High School and Traverse City High School in Petoskey and Traverse City, Michigan. She also briefly taught at the Spearfish Normal School in Spearfish, South Dakota, until 1909.

Career

Atkin was hired in the fall of 1909 as an assistant professor in mathematics. Five years later, Atkin began her decade-long run as Chairman of ISNU’s branch of the Young Women’s Christian Association, only a year after the branch was established. She served as ISNU’s representative alongside Alta Fishback at the YWCA’s First National Conference in Lake Forest, Illinois, in January of 1915. This same year, Atkin played a key role in the development of ISNU’s Women’s Debate Club. In 1917, following the beginning of the United States’ involvement in World War I, Atkin joined the ISNU Auxiliary of the Red Cross as the secretary-treasurer of the Recording Work and Membership Committee. She also brought the Students Friendship War Fund Campaign to ISNU in November of this year, which raised over a thousand dollars. The total funds generated by this campaign made it, at the time, the “largest contribution ever made for any cause by students and faculty members of the United States.” In 1920 through 1921, Atkin served as the Vice President for the Faculty Women’s Club, the temporary head of Fell Hall, and the Dean of Women. In the summer of 1925, Atkin began sabbatical and over the summer, studied at Columbia University. In the fall of 1925, she briefly worked as a Professor of Fine Arts at Columbia's Teachers College. Shortly upon her return to ISNU, Atkin served as the temporary head of the Mathematics Department from 1928 til 1929. This same year, she became the sponsor for ISNU’s newly established Euclidean Circle and a faculty member of the Lecture Board. In 1932, Atkin was elected to the executive committee of the central division of the Illinois State Teachers Association, or ISTA (now known as the Illinois Education Association). The following semester, she became an officer of the newly created ISNU chapter of Kappa Mu Epsilon, a mathematics honor society. Her time with the ISTA continued into 1935, when she was elected as president of the central division. The following year, she once again became the temporary head of the mathematics department, and also chairman of Delta Kappa Gamma and the American Association of University Women. Shortly before the fall semester of 1944, Edith Atkin retired from ISNU after 35 years.

Death

Edith Atkin died on August 27th, 1955, at Brokaw Hospital in Normal, Illinois. She was buried in Petosky, Michigan, the city where she first began her career as a teacher.

Legacy

Throughout the 1950s, plans to create two new residence halls on South Campus were drafted. In 1960, the first of the residence halls was created and named Hamilton-Whitten residence hall. Two years later, the second residence hall would open and be named Atkin-Colby, after both Edith Irene Atkin and faculty member June Rose Colby. It would initially serve as housing for Sophomores of Illinois State.