Elizabeth M. Boggs
 Elizabeth
Monroe Boggs, Ph.D. April 5, 1913 - January 27, 1996 Elizabeth Monroe
Boggs was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the daughter of Elizabeth McNairy
Monroe and Frank Adair Monroe, Jr. Her brothers, Allyn Adair Monroe
and Willis Lathrop Monroe, died in 1984 and 1920, respectively.
In 1941, Elizabeth married Fitzhugh Willets Boggs (1911-1971). Their
son, Jonathan David Boggs, was born in 1945 and resided at the Hunterdon
Developmental Center in Clinton, New Jersey, near were Elizabeth
lived in Hampton, New Jersey. David passed away in 2000.
In 1935, Elizabeth graduated from Bryn Mawr College, summa cum laude,
with distinction in Mathematics. She earned a Ph.D. in Theoretical
Chemistry from Cambridge University, England, in 1941. Subsequently,
Elizabeth was awarded honorary degrees from the University of Medicine
and Dentistry of New Jersey, Kean College, and The Ohio State University.
With David's birth in 1945, Elizabeth shifted her focus from the
career in Mathematics for which she had prepared to advocacy and
the development of public policy for people with disabilities. A
founder of the National Association for Retarded Children, Elizabeth
served as the Association's first woman President. Throughout her
career, she had continually been involved with The Arc's Governmental
Affairs Committee and its activities.
Elizabeth's involvements and contributions have been far-ranging.
They include serving on the President's Panel on Mental Retardation
and as Vice-Chair of The Task Force on the Law, 1961-1963, and on
the President's Committee on Mental Retardation. Working with the
International League of Societies for the Mentally Handicapped,
she was a principal author of the United Nations Declaration of
General and Special Rights of the Mentally Retarded. With Justin
Dart, Elizabeth co-chaired the congressionally appointed Task Force
on Rights and Empowerment of People with Disabilities, an important
impetus to the development of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Elizabeth served on the SSI Modernization Project and, at the time
of her death, was serving on the Social Security Administration's
Task Force on Representative Payees.
Elizabeth's many national awards and recognitions
include, the Kennedy International Award for Leadership, the Distinguished
Public Service Award HEW, the Distinguished Service Award UCPA,
the Wallace Wallin Award CEC, and the N. Neal Pike Prize for Service
to People with Disabilities. She was also recognized by the American
Association of University Affiliated Programs, The Arc-US and the
President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities.
Elizabeth was a Life Fellow of AAMR, and an Honorary Fellow of the
American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
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