Hardworker. Organizer. Trusted.
No one is more surprised at the direction her life has taken than Ida Early. She did not plot out her career or her extensive leadership role in the community, but all roads have led to a keen respect for her talents and accomplishments.
At Washington University, Early started as a part-time administrative assistant in the business school. Thirty-seven years later, she serves as the secretary to the university’s board of trustees, managing the governing body of 83 trustee members.
Early grew up in Dallas, but feeling stifled by Texas, coupled with the “angst of teenagehood,” she left to attend the University of Pennsylvania. There, she earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology and met her husband of 41 years, Gerald Early, who is currently chair of the African and African American Studies Department at Washington University.
While busy working and raising two daughters, Early wanted to get involved in the community. Somebody suggested the Junior League – which she’d never heard of – and in typical style, she became its president several years later, the first African American to hold the office at the Junior League of St. Louis.
Her many honors include Woman of Achievement in 2014 and the Distinguished Service Award from the National Council of Negro Women. She’s also served on various boards, including Care and Counseling, Dance St. Louis, Epworth Children and Family Services, and United Way of Greater St. Louis.
I wanted people to see change at the Junior League.
I hoped that my presidency changed the way members understood diversity. And also the way nonmembers saw the Junior League – that we were an inclusive organization that reached out to other communities.
My dad was dutiful.
My father was a role model for hard work. He started as a janitor at Southwestern Bell and retired as a lineman. He also took care of his mother and her two sisters, so weekends were about everyone else. He was always on call and took family responsibility very seriously. In fact, he took anything in his care to heart.
I go to work to get a job done.
One of my first jobs at Washington University was as advisor to junior and senior students. Today, as secretary of the board of trustees, I work with a trustee whom I advised years ago and who went on to be very successful. I told him, “I must have given you really good advice.”
Calm on the outside… churning on the inside.
I don’t like conflict. Loud voices, fussing and fighting make me feel like I’ll never win. I’m too soft and likely to start crying. Inside my head I may be screaming, but I speak calmly. In meetings, if I don’t agree with you, I’ll keep quiet and then talk to you privately.
It’s hard living with someone and letting him be himself.
For so many years I was the house police – it had to be sparkling and pristine. My husband had piles of papers and books everywhere. Finally, I decided, “Let him keep his stuff on the floor.” I’ve mellowed so much that now we may become hoarders.
You can have a great career…with no plan!
I worked as a buyer for Wannamaker’s Department store in Philadelphia – for one week! It wasn’t for me. My career at Washington University began as a part-time job and has lasted 37 years. When the chancellor asked me to be in charge of the commencement ceremonies, I felt honored. I want to do all I can to make things as perfect as I can.
Accept yourself for who you are.
I was immersed in groups that had many stay-at-home mothers, which made me jealous. I wished I could stay home, too. But now that I’m facing retirement, I don’t want to give up working. The challenge is to stop thinking the grass is always greener.
You have to be self-reliant and lean on others.
Raising kids away from our families, my husband and I had no one to rely on but each other. When my husband took a sabbatical in Lawrence, Kansas, I learned self-reliance. But I also stopped being afraid to ask for help. For the longest time, I didn’t want to let other people know my business – or see the chinks in my amour. But that’s just living. That’s being human.
