Although Pearl Sydenstricker (Buck) was born in West Virginia, she spent most of her childhood in China where her parents were Presbyterian missionaries. After graduating from high school in Shanghai, she traveled to Lynchburg, Virginia, where she became a student at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College. What a journey that was in 1910!
Although the adjustment from life in China was an adjustment, she seemed to adapt. She participated in student activities including the Young Women’s Christian Association, student government, Helianthus yearbook, The Tattler literary magazine, and as a member of the Theta Chapter of Kappa Delta.
The Theta Chapter report in a 1914 Angelos of Kappa Delta, included this snippet about the chapter:
Theta has recently adopted the plan of having informal debates at fraternity meeting on various subjects of vital interest to the Greek girl. A broader knowledge of sororities at large can be acquired in this way. The subject discussed at the last meeting was ‘The Value of the Sorority.’
Pearl Sydenstricker argued from the standpoint of its faults and Florence Barry from the standpoint of its benefits.
In the Forum section of Volume 10 of The Angelos, she and Gamma chapter had a debate. Gamma chapter discussed the advantages of sophomore pledging and she discussed the disavantages. Her summation was:
The best solution, I think, is in pledging at mid-year of the Freshman year. This leaves half a year to know the girls, and half a year free from rushing in which to enjoy each other. The mid-year examinations could be used as a basis of scholarship, if desired. The girls, both rushees and rushers, are not wearied with months of rushing, and the harmful effects of rushing are minimized as far as possible.
A senior that year and it was noted that “Pearl Sydenstricker will leave in August for China.” However, before she left to take up missionary work, she spent the summer with friends in Virginia.
After graduating with a philosophy degree in 1914, she indeed left for the long journey to China. She became the wife of John Lossing Buck, another missionary, in 1917. They spent the first years of marriage in North China.
In 1921, they headed to Nanjing. She taught at the university and became a mother. The family survived a 1927 attack of westerners with the help of a Chinese woman Buck had befriended. The marriage would end in 1935, the year she married Richard J. Walsh, who worked in publishing.
Buck led a most fascinating life. Here is how she is described on the Kappa Delta website:
Pearl Sydenstricker Buck Pearl is the renowned author of over 70 books. She is the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize in literature, and she also won a Pulitzer Prize. In 1942, Pearl and her husband founded the East and West Association, dedicated to cultural exchange and understanding. In 1949, she established Welcome House, the first international, interracial adoption agency.
It is noted that she graduated Phi Beta Kappa, but that needs an asterisk. The Phi Beta Kappa chapter at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College was not established until 1917. She was elected to member in 1939. By Buck’s own admission in her autobiography, she was not a competitive student.
