Mereb Ethna Mossman was born on December 1, 1905 in Winfield, Kansas. She received her bachelor’s degree from Morningside College in 1926 and her masters from the University of Chicago in 1928. She was a social worker in Chicago at the Chicago Orphan Asylum and head of the Department of Sociology at Ginling College in Nanking, China. She taught at the University of Chicago, Alabama Woman’s College, and University of North Carolina.
Mossman came to Woman’s College in 1937 and became Professor of Sociology and eventually Dean of Instruction, Dean of the College, Dean of Faculty, and Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs. Mossman served under four different chancellors, from Edward Kidder Graham to James Ferguson, and saw dramatic changes at the institution. During her time, UNCG transitioned from an all-female institution to coed, from a small college to a sprawling university, from an undergraduate-oriented campus to a doctoral degree-granting institution.
Mereb Mossman was a consultant for American Association of Schools of Social Work and the Southeastern Office of the Red Cross. She was also a member of the American Sociological Society, Southern Sociological Society, the North Carolina Conference of Social Services, the Guilford County Mental Hygiene Society, and the Greensboro Council of Social Agencies. Mossman was a trustee and executive member of Moses Cone Memorial Hospital, Chairman of the Committee on General Education at Woman’s College, and served on the Board of the Young Women’s Association. She was an honorary member of the Junior League and recipient of Quota Club’s Woman of the Year award in 1954. She also received the Oliver Max Gardner Award in 1956. In 1960 she was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humanities at Queens College and Morningside College. In 1963 Mereb Mossman was elected executive council of the commission on colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1969 she was named Vice Chancellor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
She retired in 1976 and her resume contained eleven pages that mentioned her community work, educational groups that she belonged to, and honors that she had received. In 1977, the campus administration building was renamed in her honor. Mereb Mossman died in 1990 at the age of 84.
Written by Brittany Hedrick, Fall 2015 intern