Department of Health Education and Welfare
Mrs. Hobby taking oath. Courtesy of Bill Hobby, Family Photos and Archives.
how she came to office
Mrs. Hobby was appointed head of the Federal Security Agency in 1952 by Dwight D. Eisenhower. Mrs. Hobby was the leader of Public Health Services, Offices of Education, Food and Drug Administration and other commissions which were later combined and renamed the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Mrs. Hobby wanted to increase food supplies, drug agencies, scientists in these areas and getting the polio vaccine created. Her determination and dedication created her legacy. She spoke her mind on teacher employment, food distribution, and medical care. However, when her husband was sick in 1955, she resigned from office.
" If I have learned anything in business, in politics, in state or national government, it is that we can do nothing unless we work as a team ...seeing the goals together, working together, able to make small compromises to gain the greatest common good..."
-Excerpts from speech to Arlington ( Texas ) Women's Club, Nov. 2, 1972
From Oveta Culp Hobby compiled and edited by Al Shire courtesy of Bill Hobby.
-Excerpts from speech to Arlington ( Texas ) Women's Club, Nov. 2, 1972
From Oveta Culp Hobby compiled and edited by Al Shire courtesy of Bill Hobby.
TIME The Weekly News Magazine, Mrs. Secretary Hobby: A Common Thread of Family Service. May 4, 1953.
Courtesy of Woodsen Research Center
Courtesy of Woodsen Research Center
"She had this marvelous ability to take an idea and to be able to translate it into practical action and that skill was marvelous. And because she was able to do that she was very successful in almost everything she attempted."
-Personal Interview with Debra Winegarten, February 2, 2015.
March 19, 1954 at the White House, Mr. Roswell B Perkins (New H.E.W. assistant secretary),
Mrs. Hobby, President Eisenhower. Courtesy of Bill Hobby, Family Photos and Archives.
Mrs. Hobby, President Eisenhower. Courtesy of Bill Hobby, Family Photos and Archives.
"...she felt responsible for the whole world. She really thought, like I said, the greatest generation and the war to end all wars. They really believed all that as naive as it sounds. But she even at whatever she was, her late eighties at that time, she still felt responsible for the whole wide world. When the world went to war again, she was just inconsolable. She was very, very sad."
-Paul Hobby, Grandson of Oveta Culp Hobby,
Personal Interview, February 5, 2015.
-Paul Hobby, Grandson of Oveta Culp Hobby,
Personal Interview, February 5, 2015.