Francine April Herman

FRANCINE APRIL HERMAN
ITHACA - Francine April Herman, Cornell University Emerita Professor, age 87, died on May 18, 2008 at Hospicare. Born in New York City on March 1, 1920, she was the daughter of Abe and Mildred April. She was predeceased by her father, mother, brother; and husband, Louis Herman, who died in 1964.
She is survived by her stepson, Dr. Paul Herman; daughter-in-law, Polly Herman; four grandchildren, Dr. Peter Herman, Anne Herman and Louisa Herman, all of Portland, Oregon, and Dr. Edwin Herman, Laura Schultz-Herman, and great-grandchild, Lily of Stevens Point, Wisconsin.
Fran grew up in New York City and developed her love for social and labor causes, and civil and women's rights at an early age. While still in high school, she participated in a lunch meeting at the White House. Walking up the driveway, she was met by President Roosevelt, who was on his way to a meeting. The President put this nervous young girl at ease with an "Oh, so you're going to have lunch at my house -- tell them I said they're to treat you well!" From that point on, she was hooked on politics and was a lifelong Democrat. She attended Hunter College in New York, but the Depression and the advent of World War II put a temporary halt to that phase of what was to be a fruitful academic and writing career.
After the war, Fran taveled and eventually turned her writing skills to advertising, which led to a contract with Rothschild's Department Store in Ithaca. She fell in love with this quirky little town, stayed, and soon was doing "A View from the Kitchen Window", a series of radio essays on WHCU. She helped create The Green Room Circle, an Ithaca summer theater, and her love of theater regularly took her to Stratford, Ontario, to attend the Shakespeare Festival. In 1953, she married Louis Herman, and they also traveled, most particularly to Italy (she loved Rome) and to the Middle East.
A few years after Lou died, Fran decided to go back to school. Because of her life experiences, she was provisionally accepted into the Industrial and Labor Relations School at Cornell. The provisional label was soon removed and she became a Lecturer, teaching for ILR Extension from 1967 to the early 1970's. She received an MS degree from Cornell in 1973. Her specialty was Communications, with emphasis on labor relations, which she later taught in the Hotel School. During the Carter Administration, she was appointed a mediator for the US Dept. of Labor. She was also a mediator and fact-finder for the New York State Public Employment Relations Board from 1973-1991, was a member of the Advisory Committee on the Status of Women and the Cornell 11 Committee, and was Secretary of the University Faculty in the 1980's. In 1989, she retired as an Emerita Professor.
In 1979, she created an endowment in honor of her mother to support undergraduate financial need. For many years, Fran's model and best friend was Alice Cook, who was the University's Ombudsman and co-founder of the Women's Studies Program. Following Alice's death in 1998, Fran was instrumental in establishing a chaired Professorship in her honor, and was in turn honored in 2007 by receiving an Alice Cook Recognition Award, given to individuals "...who have significantly contributed to women's issues, changing the climate for women at Cornell University."
Fran had friends and former students all over the world. She visited them in Europe and Australia, and spent a term teaching in Paris, another of her favorite cities. She fondly recalled a time in Japan when she and Alice Cook were being honored at a country inn by former students. The meal also included the swallowing of live goldfish; as she described it, "...the hard part was getting them down without chewing, and having the strangest tickling sensation in your stomach."
A memorial service is to be scheduled. Tributes may be sent to Hospicare, the Mildred April Scholarship Fund of the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell, or to the charity of your choice.
Throughout her life, Fran kept her sense of humor, and love for good friends and good scotch. She never stopped fighting for what she knew to be important - a fair shake for all. She will be sorely missed.