Loomis, Albertine

It would have been no surprise to her fellow Theta Chapter members that Albertine Lewis would become a published author. She had, at the University of Michigan, been involved in various literary societies and won assorted honors, including being awarded the Phi Beta Kappa key. She was a member of Mortar Board, the Judiciary Council, and Wyvern (a campus honor society), the Girls’ Educational Club, and she was on the executive board of the campus Women’s League. Loomis was named one of the campus “Literary Seniors,” and as class poet, she had the honor of reading the class poem. 

After graduation in 1917, she became an English teacher, as well as a writer and historian. She wrote “The Grapes of Canaan,” a book about the first Protestant missionaries to Hawaii in the early 19th century, which included Loomis’ great-grandfather. She also was the chairman of the Editorial and Printing Committee of the Hawaiian Historical Society. In that capacity, she helped organize an annual historical essay writing contest for high school students in Hawaii.

She died on September 14, 1985, at the age of 90 in Honolulu, Hawaii.