Ruth Mary Rogan Benerito was born in New Orleans in 1916 and lived to be 97. She was an American chemist and inventor known for the development of wash-and-wear cotton fabrics, as well as the development of glassy fibers useful in the manufacture of laboratory equipment.
She described her father, John Edward Rogan, as a pioneer in women’s liberation. Her mother, Bernadette Elizardi Rogan, was an artist and considered a “truly liberated woman” by her daughter.
In an age when girls did not usually go on to higher education, her father made sure his daughters received the same education available to boys. She earned degrees in chemistry, physics and math, from the women’s college at Tulane University, a Master’s degree from Tulane, and her doctorate In 1948 from the University of Chicago.
In 1953 she went to work at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in New Orleans, where she spent most of her career.
It was while working there that Benerito invented wash-and-wear cotton fabrics. She found a way to chemically treat the surface of cotton that led not only to wrinkle-resistant fabrics, but also to stain- and flame-resistant fabrics. The invention was said to have “saved the cotton industry.”
Besides her contribution to the textile industry, during the Korean War, she developed a way to give fat intravenously to patients who were too sick to eat — a method used to feed seriously wounded soldiers and save their lives.
Awarded a total of 55 patents, and numerous awards, we are most grateful to Ruth Benerito for her contributions to the ease, comfort and safety of our lives — and for freeing us from the ironing board.
