Elizabeth L. Cless

Elizabeth Lawrence Cless (January 28, 1916 – July 20, 1992) was an American educator. She pioneered the development of continuing education for women, which provides new paths and programs to help women resume higher education that they had interrupted or postponed. Starting at the University of Minnesota in 1960, and subsequently at The Claremont Colleges in California, Cless developed and expanded the scope of those programs; by 1970 educators had created 400 of them throughout the United States. In 1979 she developed and founded The Plato Society, a lifelong learning organization at the University of California, Los Angeles focused on the intellectual growth of men and women over 50. Cless appears in Feminists Who Changed America, 1963–1975.

Early life and education Elizabeth Lawrence was born in Akron, Ohio, on January 28, 1916. Her father was a traveling businessman; she attended 11 different schools before reaching the tenth grade. Her high school was the University of Minnesota laboratory school; she went to Florence, Italy, for a final, art-immersed high-school year.

Marriage and travel In 1942, she married U. S. Navy lieutenant Irving Clark. In 1958 she began meeting informally with University faculty members interested in renewing the intellectual skills of a generation of "Rusty Ladies" —capable women who had been away from school for several years. Cless was asked to plan an experimental liberal arts seminar for them. Sixteen women took that seminar in the fall of 1959. It launched in 1960 with Cless and Senders as co-directors and the program's purpose the full, productive use of educated women. CCE focused on people who wanted to acquire an interrupted or postponed degree in an existing college setting. It served a wide variety of students. Educational counseling and planning were key aspects of its program. One-on-one counselors helped students define and navigate choices and worked to accommodate their flexible and part-time attendance needs. Courses were made available at many educational institutions in addition to those in the Claremont cluster. Cless introduced two interdisciplinary liberal arts seminars at CCE in 1967 and a third seminar in 1968. She continued as the Director of CCE until June 30, 1975.

UCLA In 1979 Cless performed a feasibility study and wrote a proposal for a learning-in-retirement program at UCLA Extension, She became the director of the new program from 1980 into 1983, after which The PLATO Society continued as a self-directed, self-governing lifelong learning institute.

Honors In June 1970, the Radcliffe College Alumnae Association gave Cless its highest honor, the Alumnae Recognition Award. She was a Los Angeles Times Woman of the Year honoree in 1970 and was listed in Who's Who Among American Women in 1972.

In 1985, after her husband died, Cless moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, near her daughter, son-in-law, and two grandchildren. Cless died in Cambridge on July 20, 1992, at age 76.