Local Women's History

Marian Wettrick (r)
with Donna Kell,
one of the young women she encouraged

Miss Wettrick was kind of a legend for me when I was growing up in Coudersport. Miss Wettrick was my mother's "gym" teacher in the days when the school's gymnasium was in the Odd Fellows Hall, located four blocks north of the school building on Main Street. My mother credited her with providing a rigorous education in nutrition, the muscles and bones and the health benefits of physical exercise. I could not imagine having to walk those blocks in the dead of winter wearing a gym suit but I was particularly enamored at the idea of this woman encouraging girls of the 1930s - long before Title IX - to be more than a pretty face.

I officially met Miss Wettrick when I joined a new book club being established in Coudersport in the 1990s. It was a group that included women of all ages - but Miss Wettrick was likely the oldest. I still have a book she recommended, "Friday Night Lights," on my bookshelf.

I was a witness to her tireless advocacy to move women into the male-dominated seats of power on borough council, in board rooms and onto the medical staff of our local hospital where women were few and far between. 

Seldom without her signature hat, Miss Wettrick offered her encouragement on the sidelines of local girls' basketball games until the end of her life in 1996.

Her encouragement of women continues still due to the Marian J. Wettrick Charitable Foundation.  She took great care in planning her legacy, working closely with Citizens Trust Company (now C&N Bank) where her father had been cashier. The resulting foundation awards scholarship grants to female graduates of Pennsylvania colleges who are pursuing a medical degree from a Pennsylvania medical school. 

1928

Born in 1912, Miss Wettrick (her given name was Marian but it was always difficult for me to address an elder by her first name) graduated from Coudersport High School and later West Chester College. She returned to her alma mater to teach physical education and health for several years before departing to accept a teaching position in Maryland. She later entered the public health field, studying at the Yale University School of Alcohol Studies and earning a Master's Degree in Public Health at the University of North Carolina.

She had extensive experience in the addictions field having served in various posts in both New York and Pennsylvania. From 1958 to 1964, she was employed by the Pa. Department of Health as chief of community organization for the Division of Behavioral Problems and Drug Control. Later as Director of the Department of Community Services for the National Council on Alcoholism, she was recipient of the Alcohol and Drug Problems Association award for her work in Aacoholism.

After she retired, she returned to her hometown, moved into the old family home on Main Street and  committed her time to church and civic activities, including Coudersport Borough Council, Family Crisis Center Board of Directors and the advisory board of the former Charles Cole Memorial Hospital. She was a charter member of the Business and Professional Women's Club.

It is my great privilege to serve on the Wetttrick Foundation's advisory scholarship selection committee. Each summer we work with bank representatives to review applications from exceptional young women from across the Commonwealth. We interview 12-16 candidates and award 8-10 scholarships annually.

Since 1996,  62 young women have received scholarship awards totaling $2,023,000* as a result of Miss Wettrick's careful plans.

As I tell the applicants every year, Marian J. Wettrick was one strong-willed woman!

*as of May 2022