1st woman president of Smith College dies, school says
Jill Ker Conway also served as a visiting professor at MIT until 2011.
NORTHAMPTON, Mass. (AP) — Smith College in Massachusetts says its first woman president, writer and scholar Jill Ker Conway, has died at the age of 83.
The school says Conway died Friday at her home in Boston.
The Australia native was named president of the women’s liberal arts college in Northampton in 1975. During her decade-long presidency, Conway spearheaded new programs and oversaw a near tripling of the school’s endowment
After she left Smith, Conway wrote three best-selling memoirs, including “A Woman’s Education.” She received the National Humanities Medal in 2013 from President Barack Obama.
Conway also served as a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology until 2011.
Smith President Kathleen McCartney called Conway a “groundbreaking and gracious” president and good friend and mentor.
