Virginia Insco Irons, M.A.

Appalachian State University

Universities and colleges--Faculty

Dr. Richard D. Howe

J. Beth Carlton

1987

Biographical sketches

Boone (N.C.)

https://www.geonames.org/4456703/boone.html

1980s

2000-2010

Assistant Professor Emerita

Assistant Professor Emerita of Home Economics Virginia Insco Irons (May 13,1913 -), retired college professor, was born in Lawrenceville, Virginia, the daughter of Howard and Sarah Hardy Insco. Howard was a rail­road man on the Seaboard Railway and Sarah was a homemaker. Virginia's two sisters are Louise Insco Partin of Scotland Neck, North Carolina and Hazel Insco Pitt of Virginia Beach, Virginia. Virginia was married to Eldon Irons of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho and they had one son, Harold Gene (1947) who is now a chemical engineer working at Mallinckrodt Parenteral Plant in Raleigh, North Carolina. Gene is married to Nanda Wheless Irons of Raleigh and they have two daughters, Mandy (3 years old) and Erin (1 year old). Virginia lived in Norlina until her fa­ther was killed in an auto accident and then moved to Littleton, North Carolina when she was 12 years old and lived there until her graduation in 1930 from Aurelian Springs High School in Aurelian Springs, North Carolina. While in high school she was a member of the debating team that, for two years, advanced to the state semifinals. Virginia attended the Woman's Col­lege of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro) in 1934. In 1935 she studied at Duke University Medical Center on a dietetic internship. Virginia first worked as the chief dietition at Anderson County Hospital, Ander­son, South Carolina from 1935-40. She was a charter member of the South Carolina Dietetic Association. Despite a heavy work­load she managed time from a busy schedule for pilot's lessons, horseback riding, and tennis. Then in 1940-42 she worked at Vanderbilt University Medical Center as an administrative dietitian. From 1943-45 she was a First Lieutenant assigned to sea duty on an Army Hospital Ship in the Atlantic and Mediterranean theaters of World War II. After leaving military service, she was employed at the Veterans' Hospital in Hamp­ton, Virginia where she married Eldon Irons who had recently been discharged from the Army. They lived in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho while Eldon worked as a lumberjack in the mountains of Montana. Gene, her son, was born in 1947 in St. Ignatius, Montana. Later, Eldon reentered the Air Force and was sent to Germany to serve for two years. For the next few years the family moved to air bases all over the United States. In 1951 Virginia and Gene located in Richmond, Virginia when Eldon was transferred to another air base. Later, Eldon died in California. Virginia worked from 1951-58 as manager of food services in the Richmond Public Schools. In addition to regular duties she conducted nutritional surveys and analy­ses of Junior High School students' eating habits. From there she received her M.S. in the College of Foods and Nutrition at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. Virginia Irons worked at Queens Col­lege in Charlotte, North Carolina as assistant professor of foods and nutrition. While there, she published information on magnesium and its relation to nutrition in southern hospi­tals in 1961. She also planned and calculated prototypes for nutritionally balanced frozen low calorie dinners for a foods company as well as teaching evening classes to school food service personnel. In the fall of 1962 Virginia went to Morehead State College (now Morehead State University) in Morehead, Kentucky to serve as assistant professor of foods and nutrition. During this three-year period, she directed a summer seminar on nutrition, at­tended classes at the University of Tennessee and the University of Kentucky, attended the annual American Dietetic Association con­ventions, held office on the Faculty Council, and attended the Middle Atlantic Nutrition Conferences. Virginia then worked at Duke Univer­sity Medical Center as head dietitian in the Clinical Research Unit from 1965-68. Dur­ing these early days in kidney transplant research, the menu planning was exact with respect to nutritional quantities and catego­ries. She attended a week-long study on re­search methodology at Bethesda Institute of National Health. In 1968 Virginia returned to college teaching at Appalachian State University (ASU) as an assistant professor in the Depart­ment of Home Economics, Foods and Nutri­tion Division. While on the staff, she worked as a consultant to Blowing Rock Hospital until retiring as a consultant in 1976. She became a charter member of The Nutrition Today Society, and in 1973 she participated in a statewide program called "Operation Improvement Child Nutrition." She also participated in an interdisciplinary seminar concerning "Food Fads and Falla­cies" at Appalachian State University in February 1975. She published original reci­pes from the Experimental Foods class for five weeks in the local paper. In 1974 she attended a special summer program in Ad­vances in Human Nutrition Knowledge at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In December 1974 she attended a worldwide seminar in Washington, D.C. on "U.S. Agriculture in the World Economy." She compiled a book­let: "Watauga County Folks and Foods" (copy at Appalachian Consortium). She as­sisted in a session on nutrition for elementary teachers in the Boone elementary schools. She also attended the annual American Die­tetic Association Conventions. Students, under Virginia's direction, planned and ar­ranged the bicentennial display windows of the Student Store dealing with colonial foods. She served on the North Carolina Dietetic Association Career Guidance Com­mittee as well as the ASU Home Economics Department Library and Building Commit­tees. She was a member of the American Dietetic Association, the American Home Economics Association, the Phi Sigma Soci­ety, the Nutrition Today Society, and the North Carolina Council on Foods and Nutri­tion. After ten years of service, she retired on June 30, 1978 from ASU. After three years as a dietary consultant for Lakeview Manor Nursing Home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, she fully retired at 68 years old. In 1984 she attended a writing class which has generated the beginnings of an autobiography. In the spring of 1985 she attended a basic computer course which will be followed up in the fall by a more advanced course. Sources: Appalachian State University files and personal correspondence. - Dr. Richard D. Howe and Miss J. Beth Carlton