Anna C. Petteys
Anna Columbia Petteys came to Colorado in 1914, a graduate of Phi Beta Kappa of Grinnell College and the proud wife of Alonzo Petteys. Alonzo purchased a bank in Brush, CO; Anna ran the home and cared for their four children.
When the youngest child started college in 1943, Anna returned to school herself, driving 126 miles daily to Greeley. She earned a Master’s degree at Colorado State College of Education (now the University of Northern Colorado).
The Petteyses established a scholarship fund in the name of their older son, who died during World War II, giving one boy each year a two-year scholarship to Northeastern Junior College in Sterling. In northeastern Colorado, the Petteyses practiced quiet philanthropy, funding community needs like the Northeast Colorado Rehabilitation Center, hospital and library additions, a safe house for women in Morgan County, the Washington County Events Center, the Wray Rehabilitation and Activity Center, volunteer fire departments, and projects from Julesburg to Holyoke to Haxtun. Anna and her son bought a radio station and two newspapers serving the people of northeastern Colorado.
Anna was the first woman elected to the Colorado Board of Education. She chaired the board three times, advocating for schools for migrant children and those needing special education, improving small high schools, and a Commissioner of Education to carry out these programs. This caught the attention of the White House, and in 1950, she was appointed to the Committee on Education for Migrant Children and later to the Committee for Special Education. She was then assigned to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and the UN Speakers’ Bureau. In these capacities, she visited and spoke to women’s groups on six continents, urging women everywhere to assume leadership and promote education in their countries.
When the youngest child started college in 1943, Anna returned to school herself, driving 126 miles daily to Greeley. She earned a Master’s degree at Colorado State College of Education (now the University of Northern Colorado).
The Petteyses established a scholarship fund in the name of their older son, who died during World War II, giving one boy each year a two-year scholarship to Northeastern Junior College in Sterling. In northeastern Colorado, the Petteyses practiced quiet philanthropy, funding community needs like the Northeast Colorado Rehabilitation Center, hospital and library additions, a safe house for women in Morgan County, the Washington County Events Center, the Wray Rehabilitation and Activity Center, volunteer fire departments, and projects from Julesburg to Holyoke to Haxtun. Anna and her son bought a radio station and two newspapers serving the people of northeastern Colorado.
Anna was the first woman elected to the Colorado Board of Education. She chaired the board three times, advocating for schools for migrant children and those needing special education, improving small high schools, and a Commissioner of Education to carry out these programs. This caught the attention of the White House, and in 1950, she was appointed to the Committee on Education for Migrant Children and later to the Committee for Special Education. She was then assigned to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and the UN Speakers’ Bureau. In these capacities, she visited and spoke to women’s groups on six continents, urging women everywhere to assume leadership and promote education in their countries.