News and Progress

Former Dean Margaret Mangel endowed a research fund for junior faculty

Nov. 19, 2004

Dean Margaret Wilson Mangel

Margaret Wilson Mangel retired as dean of the College of Human Environmental Sciences (then the College of Home Economics) in 1977, but she never retired as an advocate for the college or as a perceptive, inquiring thinker.

“She was forever a researcher in her open-mindedness and in her openness to change,” says Dean Emerita Bea Smith, Mangel's successor.

Mangel died Sept. 16, 2004, at the age of 92, but her legacy in the College of Human Environmental Sciences endures. Under her leadership, the Department of Home Economics became the School of Home Economics and then established itself as a college. After her retirement, the programs she had directed developed into the foundations of today’s College of Human Environmental Sciences.

Smith recalls Mangel’s enthusiastic support of the name change and of the evolution it reflected.

“She knew why it was important,” Smith says. “Margaret’s words of informed support went light-years toward letting alumni of earlier eras know that name change was not just OK but also much needed and overdue. Lifelong, she embraced change.”

Mangel also embraced research. Smith says she was “ever the scientist, intrigued by progress and what could be.” After she retired, Mangel maintained her interest in science and endowed the Margaret Mangel Research Catalyst Fund, which supports research conducted by junior faculty members. Sue Mills, former development director for the college and a close friend of Mangel, says Mangel created the research fund because she knew young, untenured faculty often have difficulty finding funding for their research.

Smith encouraged recipients of the fund to visit Mangel and share their research with her. “They would inevitably come back inspired by her interest in them and their work,” she says. “They really felt they had a cheerleader in her.” Now, under the leadership of Dean Stephen R. Jorgensen, the research and scholarly activity Mangel encouraged so passionately continues to thrive.

Smith says Mangel was particularly interested in the work of nutritional scientists, heirs to her own work in food chemistry and nutrition. “Genomics was nowhere in her vocabulary — nor anyone’s — during her working years,” Smith says, “but she read and asked intelligent questions of our nutritional scientists. I rather think if she were in her lab today, that might have been her line of inquiry.”

But Mangel was more than an enthusiastic, gifted scientist. At Mangel's memorial service, held in A.P. Green Chapel, just a few steps from the home of the college the dean emerita had nurtured, Mills recalled her friend's generosity to the college.

“She gave in honor of faculty who retired, and she gave in memory of faculty who died,” Mills said. Mangel also endowed a fund that provides largely unrestricted resources to programs throughout the College of Human Environmental Sciences, and she didn't stop there.

“We would often find an unsolicited ‘rainy day’ check in the mail from Margaret, donated to help us plug a hole, to add to her research catalyst fund for junior faculty, or just to support the Dean's Fund for Excellence,” Jorgensen says.

One motive for Mangel’s generosity was her love for the college’s students. Mills says Mangel had an abiding memory of and affection for alumni: “She would remember their time here at MU, what they looked like, who their family was, and whether they were good students.”

Even after she retired, Mangel employed students to help around the house and keep track of her charitable work. “Of course, these students were more than employees,” Mills says. “They loved Margaret, learned from her, and she cherished being part of their lives.”

Mangel was a beloved part of countless lives, as a professor, scientist, dean, philanthropist and friend. She still serves as a role model for those in the College of Human Environmental Sciences. Memorial contributions may be sent to: Margaret W. Mangel Memorial Fund, 14 Gwynn Hall, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO 65211.