Early life and career Barbara Lee Drinkwater was born in
Plainfield, New Jersey, on November 18, 1926, and graduated in 1944 from
Somerville High School as one of four students selected to speak at graduation ceremonies. After studying at
Douglass College (BSc) and
University of North Carolina at Greensboro (MSc), she obtained her PhD from
Purdue University. In addition to teaching
physical education and swimming,
Academic career As a researcher, Drinkwater specialized in exercise physiology and women's athletic health and, according to the
Island Beachcomber, "pioneered research in the field of women's athletics". In December 1975, she told
Sports Illustrated that the
Fosbury flop, a jumping style used in the
high jump, is "no good for women". Drinkwater worked at the
University of California, Santa Barbara Institute of Environmental Stress and the
University of Washington Department of Kinesiology, before assuming leadership of the
Pacific Medical Center Osteoporosis Research Laboratory She was awarded honorary doctorates of science by
De Montfort University in 1999 and by the
University of Toronto in 2001. She was the 1989 D.B. Dill Historical Lecturer and the 1994 Joseph B. Wolffe Memorial Lecturer. She was also one of the founders of Women Sport International, and served as their treasurer and vice-president until 2011. She was a member of the
International Olympic Committee Medical Commission's Medical and Scientific Group.
Personal life and death In 1983, she moved to
Vashon, Washington, where she later started an animal shelter called Vashon Island Pet Protectors. She was also a camp counselor, licensed to pilot
light aircraft, and a scuba instructor, and she played golf and collected rocks as hobbies. Drinkwater died on September 30, 2019, in
Gold Canyon, Arizona. ==Notes==