Orono, Maine
Katherine Ogilvie Musgrave, Professor Emerita of Food and Nutrition at the University of Maine, is driven by a passion for teaching and spreading the word about the importance of wise food selection for promotion of wellness. Since 1942 she has been active in the American Dietetic Association where 97 % of the more than 60 thousand members are women.
Katherine attributes her respect for education to her Mother and to the many dedicated teachers in her life, although she claims that most of her knowledge of nutrition has resulted from questions by her students, causing her to seek answers as she continues in retirement to teach her favorite course - The Fundamentals of Nutrition. Her method of delivery has evolved through several stages with continuous change of content according to new findings and technological advances, moving from lecturing in the classroom, to audiocassettes accompanying 35 mm slides, to televised lectures to the internet. For these changes, she has revised her study guide for the students - now in its 22nd edition but Katherine states that the basic principles of wise food selection have endured.
Her first attempt at pedagogy was at Vanderbilt University Medical School where she taught dietetic interns and at the University of Alabama Medical School where she taught basic dietary theory to student nurses and was tasked with combining the dietary departments from two hospitals. This was one of the many examples during her long professional career of her ability to perform on her own, well above her level of professional training. Through research and hard work she has always managed to successfully complete any challenge handed to her.
After starting as an assistant professor in 1969 at UM in Orono, her first community project included placing nutrition students in the classroom and lunch program in nearby Indian Island School. This led her to add two upper level courses to the Nutrition Curriculum: Lifespan and Community Nutrition. In both courses, Katherine and her students learned in real life situations throughout Maine benefiting the students and the recipients while widening her horizon of possibilities in Community Nutrition.
Collaborating with a Child Development Professor provided the opportunity for publication of a Nutrition Consumer Education Curriculum Guide for the Department of Educational and Cultural Services. Allyn and Bacon published their second book - Nutrition: A Teacher Sourcebook of Integrated Activities.
In the early days of nursing homes, Katherine and two Nutrition colleagues developed a course for certification of Food Service Managers in Maine long term care facilities and worked with the Department of Educational and Cultural Services to write a Training Manual for School Nutrition Programs Personnel and conducted workshops.
Katherine's efforts have contributed to the health of children and adolescents by training staff in Day Care Centers, Head Start, WIC; also Cooperative Extension Nutrition Associates. She developed and coordinated a three-credit hour course in Fundamentals of Nutrition that was taught to more than 2000 Teachers and School Nutrition Directors participating as teams from schools throughout Maine.
For two decades, she has spread the word about food and nutrition in a weekly radio talk show and provided nutrition education through corporate wellness programs. Her ability to relate to the needs of individuals in all walks of life has enriched the lives of Maine men, women and children. For this work, she has been recognized by her professional Associations, including the American Dietetic Association, the Maine Nutrition Council, the Maine Dietetic Association, the American Home Economics Association. Early in her tenure at the University, she received the Biological Science Teaching Award and in semi-retirement, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree. She was named the Outstanding CED Faculty in New England Region and the Outstanding Older Worker in Maine.
Katherine counts herself fortunate to have a supportive husband, a daughter, a son and four grandchildren. She is equally grateful for her family of former students in this state, throughout the nation and in other countries accomplishing nutrition education tasks that she dreamed of and thought impossible.
Inducted 2011
