Mary Urie Watson
Inducted In
1972
A woman of whom the residents of Ayr have every reason to be proud was Mary Watson. In 1903, she became the first principal of the Macdonald Institute of Domestic Science and Art, a part of the Guelph Agricultural College.
The Toronto Globe said: “No other Canadian teacher along these special lines has the standing and experience of Miss Watson.”
She graduated from the Philadelphia College of Domestic Science in 1895, taught for two years in Hamilton and then went to Columbia University, New York, graduating in Domestic Art from the Teacher’s College in 1900. She later held positions in St. Louis, Missouri, and the Normal School in Hamilton.
As part of her community service, in the Second World War she had charge of the knitting of socks, sweaters and other articles for the Ayr Women’s Institute. She died in 1950.