University Advancement

Public Relations and Strategic Communications

NEWS RELEASE

Professor of Communication Studies Emerita Mary G. McEdwards has Died

(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., Aug. 29, 2007) — Mary G. McEdwards, a founding member of the Department of Speech at what was then San Fernando Valley State College, has died.

McEdwards died of a heart attack at a local hospital on Aug. 16. She was 83.

In her 28 years at the university, McEdwards played key roles on the campus, helping to facilitate the transition from San Fernando Valley State College to California State University, Northridge as the campus’ first woman president of the Faculty Senate and helping to launch some of the university’s first women’s studies courses.

McEdwards began her educational career as an undergraduate student in Michigan, but interrupted her studies when she married Jim McEdwards in the early 1940s. The couple moved to Southern California in 1956, and Mary McEdwards resumed her education when her youngest child began first grade in the late 1950s, enrolling at San Fernando Valley State College. She earned her bachelor’s in English in 1959 and her master’s in English in 1960.

McEdwards joined the faculty of San Fernando Valley State College in 1960 as a part-time member of what was then the Department of Speech. It later became the Department of Communication Studies. She was hired full time in 1963 as an assistant professor. She retired from CSUN as a tenured full professor in 1988.

"Mary was a committed mentor and advocate for women, especially returning students," said communication studies professor Christie Logan.

In the early 1970s, McEdwards and colleague Elizabeth Berry developed and team-taught a course titled "The Rhetoric of Women’s Liberation," the first of two courses on women at the university. The other course was "The Psychology of Women."

Communication studies professor emerita Berry recalled that there were no books for the course, so she and McEdwards put together a reader using a set of articles from academic and popular media sources; thus beginning McEdwards’ long career as a "one-woman clipping service."

"Department faculty would regularly find copies of articles on feminism and women’s rights, with a note from Mary highlighting what we could learn from these," Logan said, noting that McEdwards and Berry refined the original course into "Rhetoric of Women."

"Mary was a passionate, compelling teacher," Logan continued. "In her courses, students learned to write well and argue with passion and eloquence. She modeled these skills in her own teaching and campus leadership."

McEdwards wrote on the political and legal roots of the feminist movement and did extensive research on suffragist Alice Paul, founder of the National Women’s Party in 1916 and original author of the Equal Rights Amendment. McEdwards also wrote on "agitative rhetoric" and Upton Sinclair.

When she retired, McEdwards took on the role of alumni liaison for the department and was the creator of the department’s newsletter, which she edited until 2000.

She is survived by three children and several grandchildren.

McEdwards had requested that no services be held. Instead, her family asks that those who wish to honor her memory send a contribution to the Mary McEdwards Fund in the Department of Communication Studies, California State University, Northridge, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge, CA 91330-8257. The department bestows a McEdwards Award each year to an outstanding returning student.