Margaret Sawyer grew up in Tuscola, Illinois. She was initiated into Kappa Alpha Theta in 1914 as a student at the University of Illinois and was her chapter’s president. She also served the Women’s League in the same capacity and was vice president of the Household Science Club.
Her childhood dream was to be a nurse. After earning her undergraduate degree in home economics, she spent a year studying at Cornell medical school with Dr. Graham Lusk. She then headed west and enrolled at the University of Iowa where and spent three years developing a course to train dietitians.
In 1918, she belonged to a research unit attached to the United States Army aviation corps. The researchers studied the diet of the aviators to determine if there was a definite relationship between diet, physical conditioning and the effects of altitude.
After her war service she became the national director of nutritional service for the Red Cross. For five years, she oversaw the nutrition activities which were undertaken by Red Cross chapters. She was hired by the Postum Company, which was taken over by General Foods.
In 1924, she developed a home economics department for General Foods. Her title was director of the educational department. At that time, General Foods consisted of brands and products including Postum, Jello, Minute tapioca, Calumet baking powder, Diamond salt, Log Cabin, Maxwell House, Hellmann’s, and Sanka. Her department was responsible for answering consumer questions and letters, approving and testing recipes, publishing booklets and preparing food demonstration events.
In 1929, she lived in an apartment building at 10 Mitchell Place. It was down the street from the Beekman Tower Panhellenic, at 3 Mitchell Place, which had opened in 1927 as a residence for sorority women.
She was selected as the representative from Illinois in a national honor roll of women who had moved to New York City and found success. In a profile in the October 1930 issue of McCall’s, she said of her job:
The food industry absorbs 26 percent of the national income. Women spend that income. They buy products and, if the food does not meet their requirements our sales suffer. I supervise a staff of 40 trained women whose business it is to make our products acceptable to the ultimate consumer. We make studies of food in relation to human welfare. We work to standardize methods and measurements so that results will be uniform in the kitchens of Maine or California.
Sawyer died on December 17, 1959, a day after her 68th birthday.
