Irma Hannah Gross

Irma Hannah Gross (July 21, 1892 – January 25, 1980) was an American home economist and college professor. She was a professor at Michigan State University from 1921 to 1959, and was considered a "home management pioneer" for her decades of scholarship in the field.

Early life and education Gross was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the daughter of David Gross and Addie Gladstone Gross. Her family was Jewish. Her mother was a teacher and school principal in Omaha. Her father was a grocer and was born in Hungary, as were her maternal grandparents.

Gross graduated from the University of Chicago in 1915, with a degree in domestic science, having studied with Marion Talbot and Hazel Kyrk. Her master's thesis was titled "A survey of the food habits in a Hungarian Mining Town". Her doctoral dissertation was on "The Development of Family Thrift Attitudes and Practices". Career Gross taught at Omaha Central High School for six years after college. She was a professor at Michigan State University from 1921 to 1959, and head of the school's Department of Home Management and Child Development from 1935 to 1958. She was active in the American Association of University Women (AAUW), and the organization named a travel grant for her in 1955. "The development of family thrift attitudes and practices" (1934) "A Study of Children's Wardrobes" (1935, with Mary Pennington) Home Management (1938, 1940, with Mary E. Lewis) "A Study of Three Methods of Research in Home Management" (1940) Home Management in Theory and Practice (1947, with Elizabeth Walbert Crandall) "A Home Management Yardstick" (1950, with Esther Everett) Management for Modern Families (1954, 1963, with Elizabeth Walbert Crandall; 1973, 1980 with Marjorie Knoll) Potentialities of Women in the Middle Years (1956, editor) "Automation and the Family" (1957) Fatigue of homemakers with young children (1959, with Elizabeth Weigand)

Personal life and legacy Gross lived in California and traveled in Europe during her retirement. Michigan State University Archives holds a small collection of her papers.