Mary Donlon Alger

Mary Donlon Alger (née Mary Honor Donlon, August 25, 1893 Utica, Oneida County, New York – March 5, 1977 Tucson, Pima County, Arizona) was an American lawyer and politician. She was the first woman appointed to a federal judgeship in New York.

Life

She was the daughter of Joseph M. Donlon and Mary (Coughlin) Donlon. She graduated from Cornell University and the Cornell Law School in 1920. While a law student, she was the first female editor-in-chief of the Cornell Law Quarterly, and the first female editor-in-chief of any US law review. She served on Cornell's Board of Trustees from 1937 to 1966 when she became a Trustee Emeritus and Presidential Councillor.

Political career

In 1940, she ran on the Republican ticket for an at-large seat in the U.S. House of Representatives but lost to the Democratic incumbent Caroline O'Day. She was Chairwoman of the New York State Industrial Board from 1944 to 1945, and Chairwoman of the New York State Workers Compensation Board from 1945 to 1955. In 1947, she served on the Federal Social Security Advisory Council. She was a delegate to the 1948 Republican National Convention.

In 1955, she was appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to the United States Customs Court. She retired from active service in 1966 and became a senior judge of the court.

In 1956, following the Hungarian uprising, she established a scholarship to provide aid to any young Hungarian woman accepted to Cornell. She also endowed the annual Mary H. Donlon lectures in the ILR School. She also endowed a professorship in the College of Arts and Sciences, to be held only by women, which was held by Eleanor Harz Jorden and then Mary Beth Norton. In recognition for her generosity to Cornell and her service as trustee, a women's dormitory was named in her honor in 1961. A Conference for college trustees and administrators regarding affirmative action for women in education was also named in her honor.

In 1971, she married Martin J. Alger. She died at the Tucson Medical Center after a brief illness.

Sources

• Famous First Facts (5th Ed.), page 189, no. 3127
• Cornell Chronicle, 1977-03-10 p. 2
• Social Security history
• Women at Cornell: The Myth of Equal Education by Charlotte Williams Conable p. 14
• Mary Donlon, 1st Woman In New York State Named To Federal Bench, Is Dead in NYT on March 8, 1977 (subscription required)
• Entry at Customs Court history

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Name	Alger, Mary Donlon
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Date of birth	August 25, 1893
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Date of death	March 5, 1977
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