Kate Brousseau

Kate Brousseau (April 24, 1862 – July 8, 1938) was an American professor and researcher on mental hygiene, chair of the Psychology Department at Mills College.

Early life Kate Brousseau was born on April 24, 1862, in Ypsilanti, Michigan, daughter of Judge Julius Brousseau (1834–1903), born in New York by French Canadian parents, and Caroline Yakeley (1834–1901), of English and German heritage.

Brousseau was educated at Los Angeles High School and Los Angeles State Normal school (later University of California, Los Angeles). She then studied at University of Minnesota, University of California, University of Chicago Law School, in Germany and in Paris. She was granted a doctorate with high honors, Ph.D., from the Sorbonne, Paris, in 1904. the Brousseau Mansion, built around 1878 by her father, at 238 South Bunker Hill Avenue, Los Angeles. The house appears in the movie The Money Trap (MGM, 1966) and also briefly in Bus Stop (1956) (across the street from Marilyn Monroe's boarding house) and it was demolished shortly after The Money Trap was filmed there.

In 1891, Brosseau taught French at the Los Angeles State Normal School and also translated French literature for the Los Angeles Times. From 1897 to 1903 Brousseau was on the faculty at the Los Angeles State Normal School teaching mathematics and psychology. From 1907 to 1928 she was professor of psychology and in the end chair of the Psychology Department at Mills College, Oakland.

Brousseau served in the French Army in World War I from 1917 to 1919, as "directrice des Foyers du Soldat" (director of a soldiers' home), stationed on Lorraine Front; she was with the French Army of Occupation in Germany and in devastated districts of Northern France.

Brousseau was treasurer and director of the Southern California Society of Mental Hygiene.

Brousseau was a member of American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Association of University Professors, American Association of University Women, Women's Overseas Service League, Lique d'Hygiene Mental of Paris, American Psychological Association, Southern California Academy of Criminology, Ecole d'Antropologie-Paris. At the time of her death she was living with her sister Mabel at 513 North Beechwood Drive, Los Angeles.

Brosseau retired in 1928 and died on July 8, 1938. She is buried at Evergreen Cemetery, Los Angeles.