Academic Affairs Office. Vice President Lu Leake Records
Lula (Lu) Leake was the Dean of Women and Vice President of Academic advising, totalling 33-years. She received a Medallion of Merit for her service in accomodating women. Materials include correspondences, WFU architectural planning materials, academic articles and reports on the state of the university, administrative files, as well as remembrances of her life.
Biographical and Historical Note
Lula (Lu) Leake was born in Woodville, Mississippi. She graduated from Louisiana State University with a bachelor's degree in math and her master's of religious education at Southern Baptist Seminary. Leake was appointed Dean of Women in 1964, and later the vice president of academic advising, the positionshe held when she retired in 1997. She passed away in 2015 at the age of 89 in Winston-Salem.
Leake was a strong advocate for women's rights on campus. In the 1970s, she organized a group of over 60 staff members to remediate grievances of sexism on campus. What resulted was the Women's Study Committee which became the groundwork for the Women's, Gender and Sexuality Department today. She also chaired the University's Commission on the Status of Women from 1995-1997. In 1996, Leake was awarded "Woman of the Year" award from the Friends of Women's Studies and the Medallion of Merit, WFU's highest service award, for her work in accommodating women on campus.
Collection Overview
This collection contains religious, administrative, and academic materials of 33-year university dean Lu Leake. Materials include correspondences, WFU architectural planning materials, academic articles and reports on the state of the university, administrative files, and remembrances of her life. Materials are in original order as listed by archives staff previously.
Administrative Information
- Publication Information
- Processed by: John Woodard; machine-readable finding aid created by Apex, 2004
- Access Restrictions
- This collection is open for use.
- Copyright Notice
- The nature of the WFU Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives means that copyright or other information about restrictions may be difficult or even impossible to determine despite reasonable efforts. The Archives and Special Collections of ZSR Library claims only physical ownership of most materials. The materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to the U.S. Copyright Law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.
- Preferred Citation
- Academic Affairs Office. Vice President Lu Leake Records (RG22.2), Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.