Cornelia Strong was a professor of mathematics at the Woman’s College (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro) from 1905, until her retirement in 1948. Though a native of South Carolina, Strong attended college at Cornell University in New York, and received her B.A. in mathematics in 1903. After teaching for two years at the State Normal School in Duluth, Minnesota (later the University of Minnesota at Duluth), Strong came to the Woman’s College in 1905 as an assistant professor of mathematics. During summers, she continued her education and eventually received her M.A. in mathematics and astronomy from the University of Michigan in 1931. Afterwards, she introduced courses in astronomy into the Woman’s College curriculum.
Strong died in 1955. The Cornelia Strong Residential Hall is named in her honor.