"Lucia Russell Briggs...was born to campus life, for her father was LeBaron Russell Briggs...Dean of Harvard...and President of Radcliffe College, where Lucia Briggs received her B.A. degree in 1909 and the M.A. degree in 1912. Of Mayflower stock, Miss Briggs again brought Eastern traditions to the Midwest campus. Before coming to Milwaukee...she had been a faculty member of Simmons College, Boston, for six years, interrupted by war relief work for children in Paris, in 1919.
She has been Vice-President (1922) and President (1928) of the Association of Wisconsin Presidents and Deans. She has served on the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education of the North Central Association of Schools and Colleges, and was elected First Vice-President of that organization. In 1923 and 1927 she was Vice-President, and in 1928 President of the Association of American Colleges, being the first woman to hold that position.
Degrees have been conferred upon her, honoris causa, by Lawrence College, Miami University, Rockford College, and...by the University of Wisconsin. Lawrence College also elected her an honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa."
-- The History of Milwaukee-Downer College, 1851-1951, by Grace Norton Kieckhefer, '22.