Eva L. Goble Obituary
Eva Lenore Goble, Ph.D. from West Lafayette, IN passed away on August 7, 2017 at the age of 107. Born on May 28, 1910, in Jasonville, IN to Zora (Letsinger) and Frank Goble. She was the second oldest of four children (Walter Lewis Goble, Mary Marie Goble Harris and James Francis Goble) all of whom have now passed. Eva Lenore was engaged once but never married.
“If you are a citizen of Purdue, you are a citizen of the world!”– Eva Goble from an interview for the Purdue University Library Oral History Program, January 5, 2007.
Purdue Dean Emerita Eva L. Goble, 107, heretofore the oldest President’s Council member on record, passed away on Tuesday, August 7, 2017.
The pioneering Purdue administrator and educator had just celebrated her 107th birthday in May during the 50th anniversary year of her appointment as dean of what is now the College of Health and Human Sciences.
Goble served as dean of the School of Home Economics from 1967 until her retirement in 1973.
“Dean Goble set the bar high for future deans, and I am both grateful and awed by her trail-blazing time as dean of the former School of Home Economics,” said Christine Ladisch, dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences.
A remarkable life
Eva Goble’s remarkable life began in southern Clay County in Jasonville, Indiana, where she attended school, played girls' basketball, and helped start her high school's first library.
The stock market crash that started the Great Depression in 1929 forced her to leave college at Indiana State University (ISU) in order to find work.
She eventually returned to school and graduated with a bachelor of science degree in home economics from the ISU teaching college in 1941, when she was 31 years old. Years later, she also earned a master’s degree in home management from Purdue and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.
Starting at Purdue in 1941, Goble worked her way through the ranks of the Cooperative Extension Service, eventually becoming its assistant director before her appointment as dean.
In her time, Goble was known throughout the state of Indiana and was recognized as the founder of Purdue’s Consumer and Family Sciences Extension programs.
Through her work and example, she tirelessly encouraged women to seek an education and pursue leadership positions.
“I was trying to get women interested in management if they ever got a job.” As she would later tell an interviewer, “Excellence is a worthwhile goal whether in organizing a household or writing a thesis.”
Her work extended beyond Purdue. In 1952, she was the first consultant involved in establishing a school of home economics in Viscosa, Brazil—the first of its kind in South America to grant a bachelor’s degree. Eventually some of those graduates came to Purdue for graduate studies.
Soon after she became dean of the School of Home Economics in 1967, Goble revised the school’s curricula and created programs that became among the largest and most influential in the U.S. Enrollment in the school nearly doubled during her tenure as dean.
Recognition
Throughout her life she received numerous awards and recognition for her accomplishments.
At Purdue, she was selected as one of the first Frederick L. Hovde Awards for Excellence in Educational Service to the Rural People of Indiana.
Purdue's College of Consumer and Family Sciences established the Eva Goble Lecture Series in 1992 and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Purdue in 1999.
In 2013, Dean Goble was among the inductees in the College of Health and Human Sciences’ Department of Nutrition Hall of Fame.
Legacy
Goble’s legacy lives on in the lives of all the students, colleagues, relatives, and friends she touched with her energy, wit, and knowledge, as well as her accomplishments.
It also lives on in the Eva Goble papers in the Virginia Kelly Karnes Archives and Special Collections Research Center at Purdue Libraries. She recorded a two-part interview as part of the Libraries’ oral history program that is preserved there as well.
Shortly after she turned 100, Goble served as an inspiration and valuable resource for author Angie Klink’s first book, Divided Paths, Common Ground: The Story of Mary Matthews and Lella Gaddis, Pioneering Purdue Women Who Introduced Science into the Home.
“I was humbled to have helped Dean Goble reach her goal to honor important Purdue women,” Klink says of her friend. “Her guidance and materials helped lift up these women to ensure their place in Purdue’s history and inspire the future.”
As a President’s Council family member, almost all of her giving (as deferred gifts) was in support of the programs she served so well and helped build that are now part of the College of Health and Human Sciences. She also gave Purdue Libraries significant support, in addition to her archives. The dean emerita served on the Retiree Advisory Committee for the Campus Campaign as part of the Campaign for Purdue.
Eva L. Goble’s life stands as a testament to the empowering pursuit of excellence and lifelong education.
“Any adult who isn’t learning is just paddling,” she said in her interview for the Purdue Libraries. “…Doing things well is important. I think everybody ought to try something hard every year. If you don’t try something hard to reach, it’s too easy to lay back in an easy chair.”
Words to live by.
