We honor the career of Dr. Kathryn Rettig. She has degrees from Iowa State University and Michigan State University. Her educational experiences focused on home economics education for the B.S. and Family Resource Management and Sociology for her M.A. Two year of her PhD were in Sociology at Iowa State and after a break of several years, she completed her doctorate at Michigan State University in Family Ecology and Educational Psychological Counseling.
Students were often surprised at the breadth of knowledge Dr. Rettig had about children and other social issues. Some of this could be attributed to her life prior to coming to Minnesota in 1984. She held an instructor position at Iowa State University (ISU) and was responsible for home management house (a live-in laboratory for daily life)> She was an instructor in Sociology at ISU during the same time. In addition, she was a social worker for adoptive home studies, for the State of Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, Champaign, IL. This was followed by another social work position in the Department of Pediatrics, Child Development Clinic, College of Medicine, University of Iowa. She was also an instructor in the Department of Home Economics at Glassboro State College, Glassboro, NJ.
Her life began a new phase as the family moved to Michigan with two young children; she was Director of Parent Education in Lake Orion, MI. Following this, she was able to focus again on her PhD and help teaching and research assistantships at Michigan State University until 1980. After graduation, she was an assistant professor at University of Illinois in Department of Family and Consumer Economics. In 1984, she joined the faculty of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota.
During her career at University of Minnesota, she concentrated her researching and teaching on building human capital. Her own career path was important, but more importantly was the development of her students and those who worked with her over the years. She has served the department as a teacher, researcher, mentor, advisor, and friend to many. Her role as developer of human capital has been with students. She has published 55 referred journal articles, 41 of them with students. She has edited one book, and authored 11 book chapters. Over the years she has helped many others grow and develop through her service as an ad hoc reviewer for 22 different journals. She has served the University, the department and many undergraduate and graduate students by teaching 19 different courses over her 26 years in FSOS.
Kathy Rettig, will always be remembered for her work on the economic consequences of divorce for Minnesota families. She was involved with six legislative testimonies for the Judicial Committees and subcommittees for the Minnesota House of Representatives, the Supreme Court of Minnesota, and its Task Force for Gender Fairness in the Courts. The research that supported this work and her other research ws funded by many foundations that were interested in the fairness of child support for children.
Over the years, her research also included: (a) Interpersonal resource exchanges and quality of family life; (b) Intergenerational transfers of values, attitudes, and competencies; (c) Adjustment of farm families to economic stress; and (c) Decision making and relationship-ending transitions.
As a developer of human capital, Dr. Rettig served as advisor to 16 PhD students and on another 30 PhD committees in Family Social Science. She was advisor to two master’s students and served on the committees of another eight in FSOS. She also served on committees in Nursing, Education, Public Affairs, and Social Work. Every PhD graduate over the last 11 years was guided by Kathy in their writing and preparation of manuscripts through the Integrative Research Seminar. Sixteen students chose to work independently with Dr. Rettig on their Special Research Papers and/or research projects. Many others were guided by Dr. Rettig as they prepared their own teaching projects.
Over the years, she helped faculty like me, Jean Bauer, to grow and develop. Her door was always open and she welcomed us for a conversation. Her greatest contribution as a developer of human capital is her two daughters, Kari and Heidi. Now in the future, Kathy you can enjoy the knowledge that you have done well and helped us all to have a better life.
– Jean Bauer, PhD, professor, Family Social Science