Овета Калп Хобби: Биография и государственная деятельность

American businesswoman and government official (1905–1995)

Oveta Culp Hobby (January 19, 1905 – August 16, 1995) was an American government official and businesswoman who served as the first United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare from 1953 to 1955. A member of the Republican Party, Hobby was the second woman ever to serve in a presidential cabinet. She also served as the first director of the Women's Army Corps from 1942 to 1945, and was sequentially editor, publisher and chair of the board of the Houston Post. She entered public service when President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed her administrator of the Federal Security Agency, soon after reorganized as a federal executive department, known then as Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; and Hobby became its first head.

Culp was born on January 19, 1905, in Killeen, Texas, to Texas lawyer and legislator Isaac William Culp and Emma Elizabeth Hoover. She briefly attended Mary Hardin Baylor College for Women, and attended law classes at South Texas College of Law and Commerce, but did not graduate from either school. She went on to study law at the University of Texas Law School, but she did not formally enroll and therefore never received a degree. Starting at age 21, she served for several years as parliamentarian of the Texas House of Representatives and was an unsuccessful candidate for the legislature in 1930, before beginning a journalism career in 1931, at age 26.

During World War II, Hobby headed the Women's Interest Section in the War Department's Bureau of Public Relations for a short time and then became the director of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) (later the Women's Army Corps [WAC]), which was created to fill gaps in the Army left by a shortage of men. She was commissioned a colonel in the U. S. Army on 5 July 1943. Hobby achieved the rank of colonel and received the Distinguished Service Medal for efforts during the war. She was the first woman in the Army to receive this award.

Hobby joined the Eisenhower administration in 1953 after appointed as head of the Federal Security Agency, a non cabinet post, although she was invited to sit in on cabinet meetings. Soon, on April 11, 1953, she became the first secretary and first woman, of the new Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, which later became the Department of Health and Human Services. This was her second time organizing a new government agency. Among other decisions and actions at HEW, she made the decision to approve Jonas Salk's polio vaccine. Culp attempted to restructure Social Security payroll taxes (FICA and SECA), and was met with strong opposition. She resigned her post in 1955. At the time of her resignation she was embroiled in controversies related to the polio vaccine Cutter Incident. Back in Houston, Hobby resumed her position with the Houston Post as president and editor and cared for her ailing husband. She went on to serve on many boards and advisory positions with various civic and business institutions around the country. Seventeen colleges and universities, including Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania, awarded her honorary doctoral degrees. She was the first woman who was considered for a United States presidential candidacy by an incumbent United States President; Eisenhower encouraged her to run for president in 1960, but she did not run.

In 1931, she married William P. Hobby, an editor and future owner of the Houston Post, who served as the 27th governor of Texas from 1917 to 1921. They had two children together. She took a position on the editorial staff at the Post. In 1996, Hobby was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. On December 7, 2021, her 1943 oil portrait in uniform painted by noted portrait artist Seymour M. Stone was installed in the Killeen Main Library in Killeen, Texas. The Education Center at the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas is named for her.