Table of Contents | Cover Page  |  Editors  |  Contributors  |  Introduction  |  Web Version

(1913-1992) A member of the Congregation of the Sisters of Divine Providence (C.D.P.) order, Sister Frances Jerome Woods spent 44 years in teaching and administration at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas. President, American Catholic Sociological Society, 1962.

At a time when the Catholic Church was somewhat suspicious of empirical research, Woods committed her career to "value-free" investigation of the social world, the topic of her ACSS presidential address. For 30 years, she studied a 10-generation Southern Creole family, research reported in Marginality and Identity: A Colored Creole Family Through Ten Generations (Louisiana State University Press 1972) and Value Retention Among Young Creoles (Mellen 1989). She wrote an introductory sociology text, one on the American family, and a third on American ethnic groups, in addition to numerous scholarly articles.

—Helen Rose Ebaugh

Hartford Institute for Religion Research   hirr@hartsem.edu
Hartford Seminary, 77 Sherman Street, Hartford, CT 06105  860-509-9500