Ella Lillian Wall (Van Leer) became a member of Alpha Xi Delta at the University of California-Berkeley. She was born in the city in 1892 and graduated from Berkeley High School.
At Berkeley, she founded Delta Epsilon, an art honor society for women. She also received a letter for her crewing efforts and was awarded the Alpha Xi Delta honor ring for scholarship. Her major was architecture and she earned a bachelor’s in 1914 and a master’s degree in 1915. Her master’s thesis was “The Functions of Rhythm Motives in Decorative Design.”
Because it was difficult for women to get taken seriously and find employment in the architecture field, she turned to teaching. For two years she taught art and architectural design at Glendale High School. She was hired by San Mateo High School as head of the art department.
According to an article in a 1921 Quill of Alpha Xi Delta, after a year teaching at San Mateo, she took a leave of absence to serve the United States Army as a physiotherapist during World War I. She had three months of intense training and was then sent to New York to wait for transport to Europe. She never boarded the ship. After the Armistice was signed, she was ordered to Camp Custer in Michigan. She worked with paralysis cases. Colonia, New Jersey, was her next post and she received a Reward of Merit for her work with facial paralysis victims.
1921 Quill of Alpha Xi Delta
In August of 1919, she headed back to the west coast and was discharged from the Army at Letterman Hospital on the Presidio of San Francisco. She resumed her teaching duties at San Mateo High School. Her next teaching position was at the Technical High School in Oakland.
In the late 1910s, she was experimenting with batik designs, decorating scarves and smocks as well as lecturing on the topic. She was a member of the American Legion’s Berkeley Post No. 7 and became the first woman to serve in an office of the American Legion in California. She was second vice commander of the post.
Her marriage to Blake Ragsdale Van Leer took place on September 6, 1924, in Chicago, Illinois. He was a Purdue alumnus. He later became an honorary member of Theta Tau while he was the Dean of the Engineering School at North Carolina State University. The couple had three children.
During World War II, she worked as a principal draftsman in the office of the Quartermaster General in Washington, DC. In 1944, her husband was named president of Georgia Institute of Technology. At that time, Georgia Tech was an all-male school. Ella Wall Van Leer made it her business to see that women would be admitted to the school. And they were but it took some time and persistance. There were five women enrolled in 1954.
According to the website of the Gamma Eta chapter of Alpha Xi Delta, those five women were invited to a tea at the president’s home. Several Alpha Xi alumnae were also there and at the end of the tea the women decided that they, too, wanted to be Alpha Xis.
The March 26, 1954, Atlanta Constitution carried a story on its social pages that the members of the Atlanta Alumnae Chapter of Alpha Xi Delta and four honor guests would be entertained at a tea at the Van Leer home. The honored guests were: Dr. Elizabeth G. VanBuskirk, national president of Alpha Xi Delta; Dr. Nola-Stark Rogers, dean at UCLA; Dean Edith G. Stallings of the University of Georgia; and Dean Karen Carlson of the University of Arizona. The deans would join Ella Van Leer and attend the National Association Dean of Women meeting in Washington, D.C. It’s almost certain that the women who wanted to become an Alpha Xi chapter were introduced to VanBuskirk and the other honor guests. What sounds like two teas may have been one and the same although the newspaper story does not mention the five young students who may have attended the tea.
It was reported in the September 3, 1954, Atlanta Constitution that Alpha Xi Delta was installing its 65th chapter at Georgia Tech the next day. VanBuskirk and Stallings, visitors that previous May, were back to do the honors. According to the newspaper article, Georgia Tech President, Col. Blake Van Leer, was the principal speaker. A reception at the Van Leer home was scheduled for Sunday. The chapter was installed with seven young women, the five who attended the tea and two others. It’s likely that special dispensation was needed to install a chapter with only seven members. It was the first National Panhellenic Conference organization at Georgia Tech and the chapter’s website notes it was the first sorority chapter to be installed at an engineering school. Van Leer provided her home as a space for chapter meetings.
In addition to the Alpha Xi Delta Alumnae chapter, Van Leer was active in the Atlanta Area Alumnae Panhellenic. She hosted its February 11, 1955, meeting.
Blake Van Leer died on January 23, 1956. His widow moved to a house near campus and stayed involved with campus life and community affairs. She was active in the Georgia Tech Society of Women Engineers chapter, which her daughter Maryly helped found.
Atlanta Constitution, September 27, 1956
Ella Lillian Wall Van Leer died on August 8, 1986, at the age of 93,
