Hall of Fame Member Biographies

Lela O'Toole

Lela O'Toole was a pioneer woman in Oklahoma higher education. A teacher in the Oklahoma public schools during the late 1930s, she became a state supervisor of home economics education for the State Board of Vocational Education in 1941. O'Toole accepted an appointment in 1949 as professor of home economics education at Oklahoma State University. In 1951, she became dean of Home Economics and served for twenty-four years. Under the Point Four program, she led the Ford Foundation, Oklahoma State University, Pakistan Cooperative that established three colleges of home economics in Pakistan. O'Toole died August 3, 1995, and was inducted into the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame in 1994.