Agnes Claypole Moody

Agnes Mary Claypole Moody was born in Bristol, England to Jane (Trotter) and Edward Waller Claypole. She had a twin sister, Edith Jane Claypole (1870-1915), who was also a biologist.[1] She attended Buchtel College, and in 1894 she attended Cornell University for her master's degree. She completed doctoral work at the University of Chicago in 1896.[2]

For her Master of Science thesis, Moody studied the digestive tract of eels.[3] Her 1896 doctoral dissertation at the University of Chicago was titled "The Embryology and Oögenesis of Anurida maritima."[4] Following completion of her doctorate, Moody served as an assistant at Cornell University despite her PhD, as women were relegated to the lowest ranks of faculty at the time.[5]

Moody was the first woman appointed to a teaching position in the Medical Department of Cornell University.[6]

She worked in various positions at Throop College, (now California Institute of Technology), including as instructor in Zoology, and as Professor of Natural Science and Curator (1903-4).[3] Moody was a longtime member of the city council in Berkeley, California, from 1923 to 1932.[7] She was also elected to Berkeley's school board,[8] served as chair of the Berkeley Girl Scout Council,[9] and was a member of Berkeley's League of Women Voters.[10] She served a term as president of the Berkeley Civic League, and was appointed to the Berkeley Charities Commission.[11] Of her community work, a local historian in 1928 commented that "No woman of Alameda County has made a deeper impression on the educational and civil life of the community than Mrs. Agnes Claypole Moody."[12]

There was a Girl Scout camp near Berkeley named Camp Agnes Moody, after Dr. Moody, in the 1930s.[13]

Agnes Mary Claypole married Robert Orton Moody (an anatomy professor who was the son of Mary Blair Moody[12]) in 1903 in Pasadena.[14] She was widowed when he died in 1948.[15] Agnes Claypole Moody died on August 29, 1954.[16]