Family education legacy faculty:
Hedda Kafka
For thirty-eight years (1927-1965), Hedda Kafka served as a faculty member at the University of Minnesota. She started her work at the University as an instructor in home economics and then, from 1947 to her retirement in 1965, was an assistant professor. Kafka was highly regarded by both faculty and students. She has been described as a seeker of and sharer of knowledge, able and creative, and unstinting in her efforts for excellence in home economics. She showed great commitment to scholarship for herself and her students, to excellent teaching, and also to inclusion of art in everyday life.
Before coming to the University of Minnesota, Hedda Kafka taught high school in Nebraska and also taught at the University of Nebraska. At the University of Minnesota, Kafka taught various home economics course, supervised student teachers, and advised undergraduate students. She was very forceful in teaching and was dedicated to being well-prepared. Her standards for students were very high. One of the past students said, "She came to life when she was teaching.” Kafka also taught at the University of Columbia in the summer of 1931, and at the University of Tennessee in the summers of 1938 and 1939.
Kafka had a strong commitment to beauty in surroundings. She felt that families could incorporate what they had around them to add beauty to their homes and surroundings. She used her artistic talent to demonstrate this to students by incorporating art in her home economics classes. She showed students how they could use the ordinary to create the beautiful, and how inexpensive materials could be used to produce high-quality designed articles. With her special eye for recognizing quality products, Kafka collected various beautiful textiles, pottery, glass, and other articles which she displayed in large exhibit cases in McNeal Hall.
Kafka was an active member of various professional and honorary organizations, including the American and Minnesota Home Economics Associations, the American and Minnesota vocational Associations, the National and Minnesota Education Associations, Pi Lambda Theta, Omicron Nu, Phi Upsilon Omicron, and Kappa Delta Pi. Kafka was also an officer in the State Organization of Supervisors of Student Teachers, and chairperson of the Scholarship committee for the School of Home Economics. She was a member of many community organizations such as the Council of Consumer Information, the International Institute, the Walker Art Center, and the Red Cross Community Chest.
In 1963, Kafka received the “Miss Betty” award in recognition of being an outstanding home economics teacher. The College of Education presented to her the certificate of Outstanding faculty Member in 1964. Hedda Kafka died in the summer of 1981.
