Women's History Month - Amanda Daflos SHS Class of '96

In recognition of Women’s History Month, Smithtown Matters is proud to recognize the accomplishments of women.  It is fascinating to learn the wonderful and interesting ways women have made their mark on the world.  Throughout March, SmithtownMatters will give a brief history of women who made a difference.  

Day 23 – Amanda Daflos - Businesswoman, Advocate, Concerned Citizen of the World

Amanda Daflos graduated from Smithtown High School in 1996.  Amanda attended Hamilton College in Clinton NY and received her master’s degree from the University of Colorado.  Amanda currently works for Deloitte Consulting and resides in California.

Amanda’s affinity for Nepal started while an undergrad at Hamilton College.  She traveled to Nepal and spent seven months living in the home of a family in the village of Kopan.  While she was in Kopan she worked at learning to speak and write Nepali. Becoming fluent in the language she then traveled the country on her own, examining the role of women in the Nepali school system. Her time in Nepal opened her eyes to the rich cultures of Nepal. 

After she returned to the United States she continued her education earning a master’s degree from the University of Colorado.  In Colorado she founded Aleigh Productions, a public relations and event consulting firm specializing in work with non-profit organizations.  It was Amanda’s goal to promote individuals and corporations by bringing their special events to life. 

Nepal remained a part of Amanda’s life.  She became the Director of Programs for the International Mountain Explorers Connection (IMEC).  The IMEC is a non-profit organization focusing on assisting people who live in developing mountain regions throughout the world.  While serving as director she focused on building partnerships for sustainable travel with western tour operators. Amanda has also been involved in issues involving porter rights (the treatment of indigenous people who work for and travel with tours).  She has lectured on the topic of porter rights at industry and academic conferences.

Amanda has not strayed from caring and concern for people. About Nepal,  “It’s definitely one of the most impoverished places I’ve seen, but to most of the people that I’ve met, it’s just kind of the way life is,” she says. “I think it’s the norm, so maybe it’s easier to deal with, or maybe it’s just a different way of looking at life. But it’s always struck me the way they can find a lot of kindness, in spite of all the challenges they face.”(Amanda Daflos as quoted in the Hamilton Review Online).

Amanda, along with John Oliva, co-founded Nepal Trek and Trail Run to expose others to the wonders of Nepal.  They take tourists, who sign up for a ten-day hike and run (running is optional) tour, through Katmandu and the Annapurna Mountains.  Some of the funds raised by the trek are used to support the Himalayan Cataract Project.

Women's History Month - Soledad O'Brien - Smithtown HSE 1984

In recognition of Women’s History Month, Smithtown Matters is proud to recognize the accomplishments of women.  It is fascinating to learn the wonderful and interesting ways women have made their mark on the world.  Throughout March, SmithtownMatters will give a brief history of women who made a difference.  

Day 22 - Soledad O’Brien was born Maria de la Soledad Teresa O’Brien on September 19, 1966.  She was raised in St. James and graduated from Smithtown High School east in 1984.  Soledad attended Harvard University in 1984 but left before graduating.  She eventually received her degree from Harvard and received in 2000. Soledad O’Brien is best known for her work at CNN.

Honors and Recognitions

O’Brien’s work has been honored several times, including a local Emmy for her work co-hosting the Discovery Channel’s The Know Zone.

In 2007, O’Brien was awarded the NAACP President’s Award.

She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, which named her the Journalist of the Year 2010 [24] and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. She is a member of the Board of Directors of The After-School Corporation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding educational opportunities for all students.She also serves on the board of directors of The Harlem School of the Arts.

She was named to Irish American Magazine’s “Top 100 Irish Americans” on two occasions. She is also on Black Enterprise magazine’s 2005 Hot List. Also in 2005, she was awarded “Groundbreaking Latina of the Year” award by Catalina magazine.

O’Brien has given several keynote speeches over the years, including the undergraduate commencement at Bryant University in May 2007, where she was presented with a Doctor of Humane Letters honorary degree,[25] the convocation speech at Cornell University’s Commencement in May 2007, a speech at Binghamton University commencement in December 2007, and the keynote speech at the 2008 annual National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) Conference in Boston, MA in March 2008.

In April 2008, she became the first recipient of the Soledad O’Brien Freedom’s Voice Award, an award created in her name by Morehouse School of Medicine. “The award was created to recognize her accomplishments and willingness to be a voice for the voiceless in our society, and her determination to cover stories that might otherwise go untold. It will be given annually to mid-career professionals who serve as catalysts for social change in their given fields.”

She has been named in People’s 50 Most Beautiful in 2001 and in People en Español’s 50 Most Beautiful in 2004.

In November 2008, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health awarded CNN anchor and special correspondent Soledad O’Brien the Goodermote Humanitarian Award for her efforts while reporting on the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina and the 2004 Asian Tsunami.[26]

“Ms. O’Brien has shown the world tragedies of human conflict, natural disasters, chronic and infectious diseases,” said Michael J. Klag, MD, MPH, dean of the Bloomberg School of Public Health. “In addition to focusing attention on the people impacted, she has shed a light on how humanitarian efforts can help alleviate suffering and where current efforts have fallen short. Ms. O’Brien has challenged all of us to think and act in ways that offer humanitarian answers to the problems of the moment and the problems of the century, including public health issues.”

During a panel discussion for the 50th National Convention for Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated in New Orleans, LA, O’Brien announced that she would be inducted as an honorary member of the sorority in February 2011. She was inducted on February 7, 2011 during the Sorority’s 22nd Annual Delta Days in the Nation’s Capital. (Reprinted - Wikipedia)

Women's History Month - The Women Of Smithtown

By Kieran McGovern

In recognition of Women’s History Month, Smithtown Matters is proud to recognize the accomplishments of women.  It is fascinating to learn the wonderful and interesting ways women have made their mark on the world.  Throughout March, SmithtownMatters will give a brief history of women who made a difference. 

Day 21- The Historic Women of Smithtown

We all know of great, inspirational women in history whom all have had profound impact(s) on society at large. Some names that come to mind are Maya Angelou, Eleanor Roosevelt and Dolly Madison. But what about local women? People do not always consider the women who have done great things and created positive change in Smithtown, NY.

In fact there are quite a few such women but, unfortunately, great women of Smithtown have typically “lived in the shadows of the men,” according to Brad Harris, President of the Smithtown Historic Society. However, as far back as the Colonial Period, women were helping to sow the seeds of what we now call our hometown. Women like Ruth Norton Blydenburgh  (commonly known as Widow Blydenburgh).

Widow Blydenburgh (1738-1802) owned and operated the Blydenbugh Tavern, which was frequented by British soldiers during the Revolutionary War. She was well-respected as the local shopkeeper and a good woman, in general. The Blydenburgh Tavern was located in close proximity to the Smithtown Library, but was burnt down before the Library was constructed in the 1950s.

Tamer Wren (1890s-mid-1900s), who lived during the 19^th century, was a former slave known as a mustee (someone of African and Tribal American descent). She served as the Mills family’s nurse the abolition of slavery. Wren once delivered testimony in a court of law, very uncommon for most 19^th century women, let alone a mustee woman and former slave.

Other historical 19^th century women include Cornelia Stewart Butler (1846-1943) and Bessie Smith-White(1862-1950), daughters of Judge Lawrence Smith.  Both were active community members and philanthropists, contributing many to important causes. Smith-White, who married New York City architect, Stanford White, lived in the Smith House (which has been maintained by the Smithtown Historic Society) located on East Main Street.

Smithtown in the 1900s saw even more significant contributions by women like Cornelia Peek, Smithown Library’s original librarian. Literature professor, Kate Molinoff (1907-2001), who taught in schools and published studies on Walt Whitman, which are on display at the Smithtown Library. Barbara Van Liew (1911-2005) and Charlotte Ganz (1908-1990) were passionate historians. Van Liew was a highly active community member and architectural preservationist. Ganz edited Colonel Rockwell’s Scrapbook, a listing of historic houses in Smithtown. Alice Throckmorten-McLean (1886-1968) was a Saint James resident and founder of  the American Women’s Voluntary Services, Inc., which provided aide and services for WWII soldiers and their families. It is worth noting that Throckmorten-McLean was passionate about horses, keeping many on her estate and playing polo. Brad Harris points out that, although there was a women’s polo club, she held her own against the men.

In the 20^th century, Virginia Malone was the Town of Smithtown Historian. She published a weekly newspaper column for 30 years until her death in 1978, which came after a fall in one of the historic houses she loved so dearly.  Claire Nicolas White, originally from Holland, married Robert White, grandson of Stanford and Bessie Smith-White.  White is an author, poet and translator. She is a teacher and editor of a poetry magazine called Oberon.

Other 20^th century women of note include; Smithtown’s original telephone operator and one-time town clerk, Mae Edwards; Rosalie Psota Martin, postmaster (and not “postmistress”!) of the Smithtown Post Office from 1938-1952; Muriel Spahr (1923-2005), a well-known, charitable Smithtown realtor; Frances Hall and Thelma Drew, who promoted open-housing in Smithtown in the 1960; one-time Smithtown Society President, Louise Hall, who continues to be involved in local preservation activities; Sally Ann Slacke, CEO of Slacke Test Boring and advocate on behalf of women’s rights in the workplace.

Harris and Cathy Ball, historian at the Smithtown Library, assisted with much of this information. Harris notes that historic women in Smithtown “run the gamut from philanthropists like the Smith sisters (Butler and Smith-White) to ordinary, good neighbors to people like Alice (Throckmorten) McLean, who founded a nationwide organization.”

According to Ball, there are many other women of significant importance in Smithtown’s history.
“Women have unfailingly been an important part of history through all the ages of people,” Says Ball, “but they have not gotten their due in the history books… especially in Smithtown… so, I was pleased to be able to think a bit.” Ball believes the fact that more modern 20^th century women are known then those in earlier periods, is reflective of the Women’s Suffrage and Equal Rights Movement after the turn of the 20^th century, “women’s contributions, no matter how significant, often went undocumented (in those times).”

So while we all know of the high-profile, famous women, we must keep in mind the women who contributed to the community and shaped the place where we live: right here, in Smithtown. It is vital for us as Smithtown residents to know our roots so that we may continue to empower women to do great things in the future.

Women's History Month - Ruth Rogan Benerito

In recognition of Women’s History Month, Smithtown Matters is proud to recognize the accomplishments of women.  It is fascinating to learn the wonderful and interesting ways women have made their mark on the world.  Throughout March, SmithtownMatters will give a brief history of women who made a difference. 

Day 20 - RUTH ROGAN BENERITO - PHD, Educator Chemist, Inventor

“Easy-Care Cotton”

Over more than fifty years, and through more than fifty patents, Ruth Rogan Benerito has used her broad scientific training to transform the cotton, wood and paper industries. The most noteworthy benefit for consumers has been easy-care clothing.

Benerito was born in New http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/benerito.html in 1916. Her mother, a prototypical feminist, encouraged her daughter in her love of science, in spite of the rampant sexism she would encounter. Benerito rose to the occasion, earning scholarships to Newcomb College (BS in Chemistry, 1935), Bryn Mawr College (Graduate Scholar, 1935-36), Tulane University (MS in Physics, 1938), and the University of Chicago (PHD in Physical Chemistry, 1948).

Upon earning her doctorate, Benerito became an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Newcomb College. Her teaching and research included advanced quantitative analysis and physical chemistry, organic chemistry, kinetics, and thermodynamics. Her specialty became the use of cellulose chemistry to solve practical problems in the cotton, wood and paper industries. In 1953, Benerito began a prolific 33-year career at the Southern Regional Research Center of the US Department of Agriculture. First, she led a project, sponsored by the Surgeon General, to develop a fat emulsion for intravenous feeding of long-term medical patients (1953-58). Then Benerito moved on to her best known work, the invention of the “easy-care cotton” process, which resulted in “wash and wear” clothing. Rejecting the industry-standard reagents for cotton fibers, Benerito found a way to use certain long-chain, mono-basic acid chlorides as reagents, creating a new method of crosslinking cellulose chains in cotton. This work led to patented processes, which eventually spread throughout the industry, for manufacturing wrinkle-, stain-, and flame-resistant cotton fabrics.

In 1959, Benerito became Research Leader of the lab’s Natural Polymers division, a post she held until retiring in 1986. Her other innovations in textiles include the use of radiofrequency cold plasmas to clean cotton and ready it for treatment with film or dye. This method, which has been adopted by the textile industry in Japan, takes the place of mercerization (the pretreatment of cotton with sodium hydroxide), thereby eliminating a serious environmental hazard. Benerito has also invented and patented processes that create (and etch) “glassy” polymeric cellulosic materials. These, resembling “petrified cotton,” resist both acids and alkalis; they can be used as conductive, reflective, adhesive, or even ornamental coatings.

Many of Benerito’s inventions have applications beyond the cotton industry. For example, her work in the synthesis of chemically modified cottons has been adopted for the development of new wood products and epoxy resins. Overall, Benerito has earned 55 US patents and a glowing reputation within the cotton, wood and paper industries. She has won numerous awards, including the USDA’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award, and the American Chemical Society’s Garvan Award (both in 1970).

After retiring from the Southern Regional Research Center in 1986 at the age of 70, Benerito taught in the Chemistry Department at the University of New Orleans. Ruth Benerito continues both to inspire beginning students and to guide advanced students in her many realms of expertise. ( Reprint from MIT, Inventor of the Week)

Women's History Month - Sharon Rogone

In recognition of Women’s History Month, Smithtown Matters is proud to recognize the accomplishments of women.  It is fascinating to learn the wonderful and interesting ways women have made their mark on the world.  Throughout March, SmithtownMatters will give a brief history of women who made a difference. 

Day 19 - Sharon Rogone - Nurse, Inventor of the Bili Bonnet, Business woman

When babies are born prematurely, they frequently require days or weeks of special care in hospitals’ neonatal intensive care facilities. These tiny patients present a variety of challenges for the nurses and doctors who care for them; their delicate bodies need both nurturing and protection, and standard equipment can be ill-fitting or otherwise less-than-perfect at doing the job.

Neonatal nurse Sharon Rogone had spent two decades working with preemies when she came up with a way to solve one of these problems. When premature babies with jaundice were treated with ultraviolet lights, it was necessary to protect their eyes from the harsh rays with coverings. But the bilirubin masks that were available were often hard to keep in place for too long.

Rogone began working on a design for a head-hugging but soft and flexible nylon, bilirubin eye mask made specifically to fit a premature infant’s face. She called the mask the Bili Bonnet. The product would take her in a brand new direction in her life that would help thousands of premature babies, and at the same time allow many other health care professionals get their innovations to market.

Rogone was born Mary Sharon Shoffstall on Aug. 8, 1942, in Los Angeles. She was educated at San Bernardino Valley College and at California State University, Santa Barbara, and became a registered nurse. In the 1980s, while working at St. Mary’s Hospital in Apple Valley, Calif., she noticed that nurses in the NICU were always struggling to keep babies’ eyes protected by constantly checking and re-checking their masks. They tried everything from cotton balls to construction paper to get the masks to stay in place, but nothing seemed to work. Using supplies she was able to gather at the hospital, Rogone crafted the Bili Bonnet and showed it to her colleagues. The design won great praise from fellow nurses.

She began looking for ways to bring the Bili Bonnet to market, attending nursing trade shows, seeking out financial backers, and handing out samples and flyers. She had very little success going this route, but she was reluctant to start her own manufacturing company until she talked it over with Andrew Webber, a medical sales representative she’d met at work. Webber convinced her to set out on her own, and offered to become a full partner.

Armed with a patent on the Bili Bonnet, Rogone invested $1,500, as did Webber, and the pair launched Small Beginnings, Inc. They began demonstrating the Bili Bonnet to staff at hospitals, attending trade shows, and sourcing materials to manufacture the goods.  Their hard work paid off; today the Bili Bonnet is used in hospitals around the world, and Small Beginnings keeps warehouses in both Victorville, Calif., and Texas.

Small Beginnings did not stop there, however. Rogone began working more of her own ideas into the company’s product lineup and then she realized that other nurses also needed a place to get their ideas off the ground. She made it the mission of Small Beginnings to expand its product line, capitalizing on the ideas crafted by fellow health-care professionals, specifically those who understand the challenges of caring for premature babies.

Rogone’s husband Phil soon joined the team, along with Ken Croteau, who helped the company grow its distribution network. Today the company’s offerings include pillows, mattresses, blankets, pacifiers and nearly 20 other innovative infant-care products. (Reprinted From Inventor of the Week)