Queer Places:
2215 Trescott Dr, Tallahassee, FL 32308
Roselawn Cemetery
Tallahassee, Leon County, Florida, USA
Mary Katherine Warren
(April 27, 1907 – October 22, 1974) was the dean of women at Florida State University since the institution became coeducational
in 1947. She retired in January 1967. Despite rumored to be a lesbian
herself, she was among those who enforced a policy against gay and lesbian
people at FSU, so that she expelled future activist
Julia Penelope.
She occupied the same office on the second floor of Westcott Building for 32 years, since joining the dean of students' staff as a secretary in 1935.
Mary Katherine Warren was the daughter of William Kennedy “Kent” Warren (1879-1949), founder and president of Kent Warren Company, Inc. in Jacksonville, Fla., 1918-45. He served in the 14th U.S. Infantry in the battle at Manila during the Spanish-American War in 1898. He was chairman of the Jacksonville City Civil Service Board. He married Mary Elleanor Greenwood (1879-1949), daughter of William and Mary Greenwood. Their daughters were Mary Katherine and Frances Eleanor Warren (1913-97) who lived in Decatur, Ala. and married in 1940, Douglas Darlynn Dodd (1912-98). He owned Jervis Foundry and served in the Army in WWII. Their son, Dustin Douglas Dodd (UAla. 1968, M.A. 1971), was director of development for King College, Bristol, Tenn., 1979-92, and endowment director for Sequoya Council, BSA. He served in the Naval Reserve, 1968-74, and married in 1969, Harriet Hayes, of Kellyton, Ala.
In 1936 Katherine Warren became assistant to the dean of students and from 1939 to 1947 served as assistant dean of students. Her principal service, however, has been as dean of women a position to which she was appointed only two months after Florida State College for Women was converted to Florida State University in 1947.
"I know of no person who has contributed more to the excellence of this university," said President John E. Champion. He said he attributed "the enviable standards of student conduct and behavior on this campus largely to the influence, persuasiveness and example of Dean Warren."
Her immediate superior, Dean of Students John J. Carey said he would feel "a deep sense of personal and professional loss" with Warren's retirement.
Warren believed a student's personal development is an obligation of a university as well as his intellectual development and always had insisted on high standards of personal conduct.
"I'm proud of the quality of young women who have always attended FSU and the quality of women graduates," she said. "This is due in part to an effort to maintain high standards. I hope to have made some contribution toward maintaining this excellence in personal conduct."
Warren was a native of Montgomery, Ala., but grew up in Jacksonville. After receiving her A.B. degree in mathematics from FSCW in 1933 she worked for two years as secretary in the office of Giles Patterson, a Jacksonville attorney.
Since joining the staff at FSU she completed a master's degree in student personnel work at Columbia and took additional work beyond the master's degree in history. After stepping down from her present job, Warren said, she planned to participate in community affairs more than she had time to do as dean of women. She had no definite plans at the moment.
She was active in the American Association of University Women and served as president both of the Tallahassee chapter and the Florida Division. She served as president of the Florida Association of Deans and Counselors and as recording secretary of National Association of Women Deans and Counselors. At FSU she was chairman of a Committee on the Education of Women and she was a member of the Governor's Commission on the Status of Women. As an undergraduate or faculty member at FSU she was a member of Delta Delta Delta social sorority, Kappa Delta Pi scholastic honorary and Morgar Board leadership honorary.
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