Barbara Chase Herr

Year Honored: 1999

Birth: 1920 - 2017

Born in: Connecticut

Biography

Barbara Chase Herr graduated with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Mount Holyoke College in 1941, receiving a master’s in chemistry in 1943. She worked as a chemist for a few years before meeting and marrying C. Harold Herr. The couple then moved to Delaware as Harold was an attorney for DuPont.

Upon moving to Delaware, Herr was appointed chair of the Governor’s Commission on the Status of Women. The commission recommended the creation of a women’s office and Herr served as the first – unpaid – director from 1977 to 1982. She set up the office, provided direction, and supervised important projects meant to prove the value of the office to women and the community. In 1982, the Commission officially became a state agency, and was renamed the Delaware Commission for Women. This was the predecessor for today’s Office of Women’s Advancement and Advocacy. Herr addressed women’s issues by sponsoring workshops on women as entrepreneurs, single-parents, employer sponsored childcare, and women in “pink collar” occupations, such as teachers, nurses, and secretaries. She also published ‘The Legal Handbook for Delaware Women’ and the ‘Delaware Directory of Public Organizations,’ and established the Delaware Women’s Hall of Fame. Her was “able to prove the effectiveness of the organization, and, in doing so overcame the dismissal of “women’s issues” common at the time.”

Herr also served on the board of the American Association of University Women, the board of the United Way of Delaware, the Delaware Council on Crime and Justice, and the advisory board of the Wilmington Women in Business. She was awarded the Trailblazer Award from the Delaware Alliance of Professional Women, the Order of the First State, the Small Business Administration Award for Advocating for Women in Business, and the Alumnae Medal of Honor from Mount Holyoke College. However, Herr was most pleased about “hearing from women who felt she had made a difference in their lives.”

In her free time, Herr enjoyed traveling, theatre, the ballet, and she had a passion for gardening. Herr was an active member, alongside her husband, of the Delaware Center for Horticulture. She had a fondness for native plants, and her garden was featured on the Wilmington Garden Day Tour on a number of years. Herr was also a member of the American Contract Bridge Association, where she was a Gold Life Master. She won the Gold Life Master Women’s Championship in 1976.
_____________________________________________________________________________

Sources and Additional Readings

Doherty Funeral Homes, I. (n.d.). Doherty Funeral Homes, Inc., Wilmington, DE. Obituary for Barbara Chase Herr. Retrieved January 12, 2022, from https://www.dohertyfh.com/obituary/BarbaraChase-Herr