Mary B. H. Ransom
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed Mary Brackett Hoyt Ransom (1884-1971) as Mattapoisett’s first woman U.S. Postmaster, a position she held from 1934 until 1942.
Flora B. Peirce
Conservation projects led by Flora Belle Peirce (1898–1990), the first chairperson of New Bedford’s Conservation Commission, made the city a better place.
Margery V. “Ruby” Dottin
Margery V. “Ruby” Dottin (1922-2020) was the first African American woman to be elected to the New Bedford School Committee in 1976.
Rubye Haffer Finger
Rubye Haffer Finger (1924-2012) was a compassionate woman of Jewish faith who was an active member in her community.
Margaret Xifaras
Hailed as “the first woman of South Coast politics,” Margaret “MarDee” Xifaras (1945-2019), New Bedford lawyer and stalwart Democrat, was a driving force behind creation of the state’s first public law school, the University of Massachusetts School of Law in Dartmouth.
Mary Schwartz
As first chair of the Holocaust Education and Memorial Committee of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Bedford, Mary Schwartz (1920-2015) led efforts that created the Holocaust Monument at Buttonwood Park in New Bedford in 1998.