Helen S. Willard

Little is known about Willard’s early life in Stamford, Fairfield County, Connecticut. Her parents, Everett Chickering Willard Sr (1857-1912) and Charlotte Elvira Smith (1851-1916) married in 1886. Her father was a descendant of Simon Willard through his son Henry Willard (1655-1726). He was a graduate of Dartmouth College, a teacher and Superintendent of Schools at Stamford between 1891 and 1912. Helen was the youngest of three children. She had two brothers Everett Chickering Willard (1891-1961) and Paul Rufus Willard (1889-1906). Willard’s parents and eldest brother died before she was 25. Willard attended Stamford High School and Wellesley College, a private women’s college in Norfolk County, Massachusetts. In 1914 she was elected corresponding secretary to the Shakspere Society at Wellesley. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Wellesly, an Ivy League college. ==Career==

Reconstruction Aide Willard served as a Reconstruction Aide with the Medical Department of the United States Army for a decade. Reconstruction aides were civilian employees deployed in America and France to treat sick, injured and shell shocked servicemen from World War 1 with the aim of gaining employment on discharge. She held leadership roles throughout her service with responsibility for physiotherapy (PT) and occupational therapy (OT) departments. Between December 1918 and October 1920 Willard was assigned to six facilities: Robert Breck Bingham Hospital, Camp Meade, Fort Oglethorpe, Detroit Ford Hospital, Walter Read Hospital and Hospital 50. Willard held senior positions at the Edward Hines Jr Hospital, a Veterans Hospital between 1920 and 1927. She was Chief Aide in O.T. and Chief Aide in P.T. from 1923 to 1927. Her final position was Chief Aide in P.T. at the New York Regional Office, which she held from December 1927 to March 1928 when she resigned from the service. Philadelphia School of Occupational Therapy In November 1928 Willard was appointed as an instructor at the Philadelphia School of Occupational Therapy, Director of the Curative Workshop and Director of the Occupational Therapy Department at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate Hospital. The Philadelphia School was one of the first in the country, opening in October 1918 to support the war effort by training women to serve in military hospitals as Reconstruction Aides. Willard was appointed Director of the School in 1935, a leadership post she held until 1964 when she retired. In 1935, a three year course for graduates was added to the two year course for ‘persons of maturity and experience’ able to undertake intensive study. The three year course combined classroom and clinical experience.:3 There was a major organisational change in 1950 when occupational therapy became part of the new School of Auxiliary Medical Services alongside physical therapy and medical technology, at the University of Pennsylvania. Willard managed the merger of the Philadelphia School and was promoted to Professor of Occupational Therapy in 1950. The University recognized all graduates as alumnae and male students were accepted for the first time. Between 1944 and 1965, the Philadelphia School had the highest ‘number of honors [for the registration examination] taken by any occupational therapy school in America. Willard was described as an "outstanding school director" because she "laid foundations (and) she continued as a builder, a designer, a reconstructor, never afraid to examine, to change, to advance". Although Willard exemplified the old guard - white, middle class, educated women with old-money roots who pioneered occupational therapy - she opened opportunities for "lower-middle class and poorer students" who applied via academic scholarships to private universities or less costly education in the state college. She mentored "new arrivals into the ways of the ‘old guard", including the "proper’" standards of behaviour expected from young women.:244-245 Alumni of the School were known as "Philadelphia Girls". Some started inaugural occupational therapy programmes in other countries, such as the Philippines, India and Israel.:129 The committee addressed strategic matters, including the military status of occupational therapists, manpower shortages, boundary disputes and the standards of occupational therapy volunteer assistants. On October 13, 1942, Willard testified before the United States House Military Affairs Committee recommending the inclusion of occupational therapy in legislation recognising them as military, rather than civilian employees. the Clinical Director of Occupational Therapy, College of Medicine, University of Illinois, are credited with being "the ringleaders in breaking us away from physical medicine".:8-9 Over the formative years, Willard supported the World Federation in strategic and practical ways. She was Chair of the Education Committee for eight years (1952-1960). The Philadelphia School hosted the WFOT Council meetings in October 1956 and October 1962. The third World Congress, attended by 1,100 delegates was held in Philadelphia in 1962. In 1960, Willard and Clare Spackman (her deputy from the Philadelphia School and WFOT President (1957-1962) visited Japan, Philippines, Hong Kong, Saigon, Bangkok, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Portugal to give advice to therapists and authorities on the development of the profession in their country. As the first Chairman of the Education Committee, "her long experience, mature judgment and respect for cultural viewpoints’ expanded international thinking and understanding". == Publications ==

Willard wrote three articles promoting occupational therapy and co-edited one for the first texbooks about occupational therapy written by occupational therapists. The articles were • Occupational Therapy: A New Profession" (1939) • "Occupational Therapy as a Vocation" (1942) • "Salvaging the Nation's Man Power" (1942) The Book: Willard and Spackman Willard co-edited the Principles of Occupational Therapy with Clare S. Spackman, published in 1947. Willard and Spackman selected authors who were the most prominent specialists in the field at the time and "pretty well outlined what each one would contribute". The 2nd edition was noted as "one of the greatest steps in the scientific growth of occupational therapy. It has been the outcome of tremendous research and is indeed an invaluable text and reference". In 1963, the 3rd edition had a new title: Occupational Therapy. A reviewer commented that "like its predecessors, it will be known familiarly to all occupational therapists by the names of the Editors and referred to simply as Willard and Spackman". The content indicated "the rapid progress in this field over the past ten years. This four hundred and seventy-three page book, considerably revised from the second edition, now covers many new developments in theory, research and clinical practice". A "completely updated, partially re-written" 4th edition included new chapters on mental health and Home Health Care. In the foreword to the 5th edition (1978) Willard and Spackman announced their new role as "editors emeriti" having passed the editorship to their friends and co-authors Helen L Hopkins and Helen D Smith. They noted that 42 authors had contributed to four editions and that the 3rd and 4th editions were translated into Japanese and Spanish, respectively. Willard and Spackman’s Occupational Therapy is regarded as "a cornerstone of accessible knowledge … an index of the growth of knowledge and the record of changing perspectives in the profession". Further editions were published in 1978 (5th), 1983 (6th), 1988 (7th), 1993 (8th), 1998 (9th), 2003 (10th), 2009 (11th), 2014 (12th), 2018 (13th) and 2023 (14th).:397 == Awards ==

In 1954 Willard was named as a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania. Only 70 women received this award since it was set up in 1947. Willard received the highest honours given by the American Association and the World Federation. In 1954 she received the OT Award of Merit from the AOTA. A decade later, Willard was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from WFOT for her "outstanding contributions to and given leadership in the development of occupational therapy at the international level over a period of time".:33 ==Personal life and legacy==

Willard’s personal life was private and precious. Willard and Spackman "understood the importance of preserving the “sacredness” of private versus professional life … they led quiet lives, meaningful lives in which they would “stow away” to the cottage on the shore of Lake Champlain in Vermont, called Stowaway, where they would read, rest, and explore the countryside". In 1981, the AOTA established the Helen S. Willard Scholarship in her memory. Willard was named by the American Association as one of the 100 most influential people in the centenary year, 2017. ==References==