Tillie E. Thorkelson (1873–1956) was just the fifth employee(1) hired by S.C. Johnson for the company that would become known as “Johnson’s Wax,” in 2017 having 13,000 employees and income of $9 billion(2).
Miss Thorkelson rose to become Treasurer of S.C. Johnson & Sons and was named to the Board of Directors in 1932(3). The earlier American women on boards of directors, beginning with Clara Abbott at Abbott Laboratories in 1900, were related to another board member or to the founding family(4). Tillie was related to no one on the board or at the company, making her the first known woman to serve on the board of a major U.S. company without a family tie(5).
Miss Thorkelson was Treasurer during the time when the legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the classic headquarters building for Johnson’s Wax in Racine, Wisconsin. A personal friend of Mr. and Mrs. S.C. Johnson who was in the house at the time of his death, Tillie authored a personal memory of S.C. Johnson with unique insights on his personality, the company and the affection that people had for the company founder.
Self-educated with The Chautauqua Institute and Local Women’s Study Club
Tillie Elizabeth Thorkelson born in Racine, the daughter of Marit and Mathias Thorkelson. Mathias ran the Wisconsin Wagon Wheel company, which made a two wheeled horse cart whose distinction was that it could go over a log without breaking down. On his retirement, Mathias sold the business to John Deere. He was also Racine railroad station master, a prominent local position at the time. Tillie had two brothers, a sister, and two other siblings who died in infancy.
As a young woman, she was teaching Sunday School at their church when S.C. Johnson was introduced to her. Mr. Johnson then proceeded to ask her current boss if he could hire her, before asking her, a procedure Tillie found irregular. Before agreeing to the job, Tillie negotiated a 20% increase in starting pay over the wage offered by Mr. S.C. Johnson. She became a bookkeeper as well as an assistant to Mrs. Johnson. One time Tillie did something particularly noteworthy, and Mrs. Johnson gave her an automobile. Tillie drove the car home, over the lawn, and into her house. She knew how to drive an auto, but not one with a steering wheel, having driven one with a lever.
After high school, she was self-taught. More than one summer was spent at The Chautauqua Institute in Chautauqua, New York, which featured outdoor poetry readings, classical drama, opera, lectures, and other arts. It was a major influence on her. The other major post-high school education was the Chautauqua Literary & Scientific Circle (C.L.S.C.) local women’s study group in Racine. A four year intensive course of study, it included a year of Greek, a year of Latin, classics, history, and great literature.
In 1931, she was asked by H.F. Johnson, Jr., grandson of S.C., to write her memories of S.C. Johnson, who died in 1919. She did so. It is available for download here.
Advocate of the Women’s Movement
Miss Thorkelson was a strong advocate of rights and equality for women, which during the time between the suffragette movement (First Wave) and the push for the Equal Rights Amendment initiated by Betty Friedan (Second Wave) was often called The Woman Movement (singular).
She believed a woman could do anything a man could do. So when the celebrated flyer Amelia Earhart came to town to give a speech, she sat her niece Alice down in the front row to emphasize the point(6).
Personal Life
Tillie lived with her sister Bertha after Bertha’s beau died in World War I. After her brother William’s wife Cora died in 1929, she and Bertha moved into her brother’s house on Washington Avenue in Racine for the rest of their lives. She helped raise her niece Alice Trist Thorkelson and nephew William Thorkelson. While Tillie earned three times the salary of her brother, she respected him as head of the household, and he admired her for her accomplishments.
Tillie’s other brother was Halsten Thorkelson, who was business manager of the University of Wisconsin, a senior executive of the Kohler Company in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and later worked for the Carnegie Foundation. Halsten’s son John was a prominent economics professor at the University of Connecticut. Halsten’s two grandsons are the artist and political cartoonist Nick Thorkelson, and the late famous rock n’ roll star Peter Tork of The Monkees.
From the public record
The biography above is the family's own account. These further facts come from Tillie's obituary in the Racine Journal Times of March 2, 1956. She served as treasurer of S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc. until retiring in 1937. With H.F. Johnson she helped organize the Racine Community Chest in 1923, serving as a charter board member for 27 years, and she was treasurer of the Racine Welfare Council for five years and its first and only lifetime honorary member. She sat on the board of the YWCA, belonged to the Racine Woman's Club, and was a charter member of Grange Avenue Methodist Church. In 1950 the Altrusa Club named her its "Woman of the Year." She died at her home at 2008 Washington Avenue on March 2, 1956, and is buried in Mound Cemetery, Racine.
Source: Racine Journal Times obituary, March 2, 1956, transcribed at genealogytrails.com.
References
- “Racine City Directory, 1890–1892.”
- Wikipedia; Forbes.
- Terri Boesel, Archivist & Historian, Archives, Global Corporate Affairs & Communication, SC Johnson.
- “The First Ladies of Boards,” medium.com/@theBoardlist, 2016. Howes, Durwood, ed. American Women: 1935–1940; a Composite Biographical Dictionary; a Consolidation of All Material Appearing in the 1939–1940 Edition of “American Women”; with a Supplement of Unduplicated Biographical Entries from the 1935–1936 and 1937–1938 Editions. Gale Research Company, 1981.
- “The First Ladies of Boards.”
- Personal correspondence of Alice Trist Thorkelson Draves.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to these people for research, contributions, photographs, and a love of history: Timothy Draves; Robin Draves; and Julie Coates.