Barbara Thompson, 1st Woman Elected as Wisconsin State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Dies

From the 1973 Wisconsin Blue Book

Link to September 27 Wisconsin State Journal article.

Excerpt: Barbara Thompson, long-time Wisconsin educator and the first woman to serve as state superintendent of public instruction, died Thursday at a retirement residence in Bradenton, Fla.

Thompson served two four-year terms in the state’s top education office from 1973-81. During her tenure she introduced rules requiring teachers to complete a professional development program every five years to renew their licenses, essentially eliminating lifetime teaching licenses.

“I think she enjoyed great friendships in the field,” said Bert Grover, who defeated the incumbent Thompson in 1981 and served three terms as state superintendent. “She modeled kindness and thoughtfulness and respect for education. Most of all she was a role model for women.”

Nicolet College president Elizabeth Burmaster, who headed DPI from 2001-09, called Thompson “an amazing woman.” Thompson was elected state superintendent when Burmaster was a young teacher and “I found that very inspiring,” said Burmaster, the only other woman to hold DPI’s top job.

Born in 1924, Thompson grew up during the Depression on a dairy and tobacco farm near McFarland, and attended a one-room rural school and later Madison East High School. She earned a bachelor’s degree from UW-Platteville in 1944, the same year she began teaching in one-room schools in the Mt. Horeb area, and over the next 25 years also earned master’s and doctoral degrees at UW-Madison.